The Age of King: CONSPIRACY
by Runandra
Summary: DISCONTINUED - REVISED from 'The Age of King': When Trafalgar Law associated himself in Sabaody with a New World native he met, had he actually signed up for more? And for some inexplicable reasons, his nodachi had a whole lot to do with the whole thing.
1. Prologue

_**Dis**__**c**__**lai**__**m**__**e**__**r:**__One __Pi__ec__e belongs to Eeichiro Oda-sensei and whatever else that has rights on it. This is for personal use and not for commercial use__._

_**Author's Note:**__I've realized that the previous version 'The Age of Kings' was very badly organized. So now I've reorganized them and put a clearer focus on the story. This is the story of Trafalgar Law._

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><p><strong>Chapter 1<strong>

_**PROLOGUE**_

* * *

><p>"That's a very long sword, old man." A young boy with unruly black hair asked the old man in the workshop as he stared at the said sword hanging proudly on the wall.<p>

"Ah, are you interested in it? It's called a _noda__c__h__i_. It's a field sword that the soldiers in my home country used when they battled in open space. Nowadays this kind of sword is not popular because it's not easy to carry around, so people prefer the standard-size swords. It's a pity, really." The old man said with a sigh.

"Can I try it?"

The old man gave the little boy a piercing look, as if trying to measure the boy and see his worth. In the end, he gave his consent.

"Sure. But don't swing it around in my workshop. Otherwise you'll demolish my workshop."

The boy carefully took the sword off the hooks that cradled it on the wall. The sword was even taller than he was, and he was already considered taller than the average boys his age in his town. He weighed the sword with his hands, and tried unsheathing the sword.

"I SAID NOT IN MY WORKSHOP, BOY!" The old man roared at him, causing him to jump slightly.

"Sorry." The black-haired boy quickly said while he ran—or rather flew—out of the workshop. The boy never knew that the old man could be really that scary; he was usually placid and calm.

Once outside, the young boy unsheathed the sword and took a long look at it. Under the glory of the sunlight, the blade of the sword glistened majestically. It had a very deadly gleam as if it could cut down anything that the wielder wished to cut. He experimentally swung around the sword. At first it was awkward because not only the length of the sword was absurd, it was also the first time he ever handled a sword. After a while, he started feeling comfortable with the weight of the sword in his hand. So immersed he was in experimenting with the sword that he didn't notice the old man watching him working with the sword with hawk-like eyes.

"Looks like my nodachi likes you, boy."

The said boy stopped with a start when he heard the old man's cackling voice. There was amusement in his voice, and when the boy looked at his wrinkled face he could see the excitement in those dark green eyes. The old man had lit his long pipe—one that he had brought from his homeland, he had claimed—and was sitting down contently on the porch of his humble house.

"I like it."

"Sure you do. I can see it." The old man grinned. "But too bad, I can't give it to you. At least not yet."

"Why not?" There was a slight disappointment in the boy's voice.

"Because I promised someone that I won't part with it until I die." The old man's grin widened.

"Then I need to kill you if I want to have this sword?" The boy broke into a sadistic grin.

The old man was silent for a while; probably stunned by that sentence that was uncharacteristic of a boy his age, but soon he burst into a roar of mirthful laughter. He smacked his lap excitedly while throwing back his head. The boy didn't find himself liking the old man's response. Usually people winced when they noticed his morbid sense of humour, but the old man laughed!

"I like your guts, boy! You are welcome to try, but I'm afraid that you are 20 years too early to try killing this old man!"

"You are just an old man!" He protested.

"Not an ordinary old man, apparently."

Feeling insulted, the boy lunged at the old man with the nodachi in his hand. He swept the blade—in the manner of someone who was about to maul someone to death instead of slashing—at the old man, aiming for his neck. In the next instant, the blade of the nodachi was stopped by another blade that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. Too surprised by the sudden appearance of the other blade, the young boy grip on the hilt of the nodachi—he was gripping it like he did a club—slackened and the old man took that opportunity to knock the sword off the boy's hand. In the next second, the skinny boy found himself flying into the dirt.

"For your information, a bladesmith can't be a real bladesmith if he can't handle blades." The old man laughed as he stood up with the nodachi and the other sword on his hands. He looked at the boy; who was hurriedly standing up, and gave a brilliant grin. "You know, I think I'm feeling generous."

"So? I don't believe that you're going to give me this blade just because you're feeling generous, you stingy old fart." The boy said snappishly, embarrassed that he had been knocked down by an old man.

In a flash, he felt himself being jerked up by the front of his shirt. The old man had somehow reached him and grabbed a fistful of his shirt, and he was now glaring at him reproachfully.

"Manners, boy! First I'm going to beat that mannerism into you." He growled at him.

"And then what?" The boy challenged him.

"Then I'm going to teach you how to beat an old man like me." The old man now smirked smugly at him before releasing his grip on the boy's shirt. "Now, since I'll be your teacher— "

"Hey, I never ask you! Don't decide on your—"

"Don't interrupt when people are talking!" He barked at the boy, effectively silencing him. "I'm your teacher, so you have to call me 'Gramps'!"

The young boy stared at him as if he had grown another head.

"Not 'Master' or 'Teacher' or something like that?" He tried to clarify.

"No. I like 'Gramps' better. My granddaughter calls me like that."

"What the hell! I'm not your grandchild!"

"You don't have to be my grandchild to call me 'Gramps'! Call me with names other than 'Gramps', and I'll beat the living day out of you, understand?"

"You're one screwed up old man…"

"Do I make myself clear, boy?"

"Yes…" The old man glared at him, so he quickly added, "Gramps."

"Good. Now, for starter, what's your name, boy?"

The boy mumbled something that the old man didn't catch.

"Speak loud and clear like a man, boy! What's your name?"

"…Law. Trafalgar Law."

* * *

><p>A solemn singing voice drifted through the twisting corridors of the huge complex of an ancient house that was sitting on a hill in Kaigara Island of Wano Country in the 'New World' Grand Line. The residents of the house would stop for a while, listening to the lullaby-like hymn for a while before going back to their chores. Some stopped altogether in order to fully appreciate the song, while very few hummed along the melody quietly.<p>

In one of the gardens of the complex were a small-bodied woman and a petite little girl. The little girl sat on the woman's lap, leaning on the latter's chest while listening to the soft singing contently. Both the little girl and the woman were staring at the vast stretch of ocean before them. The lyrics of the song spilled from the woman's lips smoothly, like a peaceful pure stream.

_As the __K__ing has __c__ome __of age _

_Him __w__ho is of the __pur__e__st bloodline _

_He __w__ill s__e__t his f__ee__t on the __o__ce__ans_

_T__o tr__e__ad the __path of tria__l__s and pains_

_._

_He __d__e__li__ve__rs no judg__m__e__n__t__ and a__cce__pts none _

_For he __w__al__k__s in his fr__ee__dom to his throne _

_Pro__c__uring the __h__e__arts of the __p__e__ople_

_C__alling the __w__orld __to his __c__ause_

_._

_T__he __K__ing ans__w__e__rs his __c__a__l__l of d__e__stiny _

_T__he __r__e__mnants pl__e__dge__to __h__im th__e__ir lo__y__alty _

_B__eck__oning at the __w__arriors of the __an__c__i__e__nt time _

_T__he __Old Gods __w__ill be __a__w__a__ke__n__e__d in his __w__a__k__e_

_._

_T__he __C__apital a__w__a__i__ts his r__e__turn_

_T__o r__e__store __the __glory __long forgott__e__n_

_I__n his throne __the __K__ing __w__i__ll raise __his hand_

_T__he __fate __of the __w__orld __w__i__l__l __be __d__ec__id__e__d_

_._

"Mother, you sing that often. What's that?" The little girl suddenly asked, interrupting the woman's singing.

"Hm?" The woman looked down at her daughter. "It's a prophecy, dear."

"Prophecy?" This time, the girl looked up to look into her mother's aquamarine eyes.

"Yes. A prophecy." The woman wrapped the little girl on her lap with her arms gently. "One day, the prophecy will be fulfilled. Our people have been waiting for centuries for that time to come."

"When will it be?" The girl asked innocently.

"I don't know, dear. Nobody knows. Perhaps the Trinity knows, but we are not privy to their knowledge. They are beyond our reach." She murmured while caressing the crown of her daughter's silky hair. "The hymn will be your guide once you go out to the sea, you should memorise it soon."

The girl shrunk in her mother's arms.

"Do I really have to go out to the sea?" She whimpered.

"It's our destiny, darling. It's in our genes, passed down from generation to generation." The woman kissed her daughter's hair. "The sea will call you, and you will answer to it. It is inevitable."

The girl hummed as she relaxed in her mother's arms. She gazed at the horizon, and then at the glittering ocean surface. They were so pretty, like a sea of diamonds.

"Mother…"

"Hm?"

"When do you think Gramps will come back home?"

The woman stroke the girl's black hair thoughtfully as she thought over the innocent question. The girl loved her grandfather so very much, she almost broke down in an ocean of tears when the old man decided to take up the sail and answer the call of the sea.

"I don't know, dear. I truly don't." The mother said in a quiet sigh.

She didn't have the heart to tell her daughter that the old man had departed with the intention of spending his old age in a peaceful place. The old man was never going back home.

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><p><strong><em>Author's Note: <em>**Awright,_ review please =D __Oh, and if you see some words meshed up together, don't blame me. The stupid web just jumbled up the whole thing when I uploaded the story =_=_


	2. A Chance of Meeting

_**Disclaimer**: __One __Piece belongs to Eeichiro Oda-sensei and whatever else that have rights on it. This is for personal use and not for commercial use._

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><p><strong>Chapter 2<strong>

_**A CHANCE OF MEETING**_

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><p>"It's so quiet now." Shakuyaku; or known as Shakky to some others, remarked as she exhaled a puff of smoke almost wistfully.<p>

The owner of Shakky's Rip-Off Bar in Sabaody Archipelago was bored. She glanced around her bar, and it was desolately empty. Not even that old man—_the _freeloader, really—was around at the moment. Goodness knew where he had gone off now; not that Shakky was particularly worried, though. That old man could take care of himself alright. His age still couldn't catch up with him yet.

Deciding to kill time by browsing through the latest news, Shakky took out the day's newspaper and skimmed through the papers. She didn't need to read every single one of the articles; she could pick up and discern the most important articles and pieces in a flash. It came from decades of training, after all.

*chime*

That delicate ringing of the bell; announcing the arrival of a customer, interrupted Shakky's reading none too abruptly. The bar owner looked up from her reading material and turned to the entrance door of the bar while offering the greetings that had come as a habit for her now.

"Welcome. What can I get for you?" She automatically said as her keen eyes assessed her customer.

It was not her usual type of customer. It wasn't a brawny guy looking for trouble. It wasn't some morons who tried to rob her bar or do some other things similarly idiotic. It wasn't some drunken men who lost their way in the vast archipelago and just happened to stumble there.

It was a girl; a sweet, cute girl with attire that Shakky recognised as the trademark of the Wano Country of the New World. The girl was wearing a tight turtle-neck long-sleeved black spandex suit which went down to her mid-thigh. On top of the spandex suit was a light blue haori with seashells patterns on it, with a dark deep blue obi tied around her thin waist. She was wearing black ankle boots while the blue haori reached the top of her knees. Her hair was tightly bound into a pigtail and wrapped behind her head by deep blue fabric that it looked more like long elastic tube, with the end of the hair reaching the back of her knees. Her right sidelock was cut in a straight bob style with the edge reaching half of her cheek, while the left sidelock was tucked behind her little ear that had a small shell-shaped earring. Her semi-long bangs were swept to the right side of her face neatly. She carried with her a medium-sized drawstring bag that had the intricate pattern unique to Wano Country.

The girl was short and small as if she was barely 16 years old, but Shakky knew better than to guess someone's age by their appearance. Heck, she was one to talk, actually. At first glance, the girl's hair had the common colour of black but upon closer inspection Shakky realised that it had a tint of dark blue. Her skin was also uncannily pale that it looked more like the skin of an albino than a normal person. The most distinguishable feature of her appearance was her eyes, whose irises had the colour of brightest turquoise—they gave the impression of clear sea.

"Hello." The girl suddenly said as she turned her attention to Shakky.

"Hello, girl." Shakky replied, all the while never tearing her gaze away from the girl's eyes. "Looking for something?"

The girl tilted her head sideways as she considered Shakky's question. She blinked twice, and Shakky recognised that stare as an 'assessing' stare. She was measuring Shakky; whether she was someone to be involved with or not. She's one unusually shrewd girl, considering how young she was—or rather, appeared to be. Shakky had yet to affirm the girl's real age.

"Nothing in particular. Just sightseeing…I guess." She shrugged, and then went to sit on the bar stool, right in front of Shakky; who was standing behind the bar counter. She put her drawstring bag on the stool next to her. "Say…" The girl looked at Shakky while rolling her tongue in anticipation.

"You can call me Shakky." The bar-owner offered with an amicable smile.

"Shakky." The girl nodded. "Can you tell me all about this Sabaody Archipelago?"

"Fresh from the New World, aren't you?" She said lightly without any accusing tone, but the girl responded with a mild scowl at her own set of clothing.

"I should've changed my clothes, shouldn't I?" She muttered as she tugged at the hem of her haori with childish annoyance.

Shakky smiled in amusement. "If you don't know about this archipelago, it means either you are going to the New World for the first time, or you've just come from the New World. For your case, the latter seems more probable since it's unlikely for someone to get trinkets and other tidbits from the New World unless they are friends or close acquaintance with some well-known pirates who have survived the New World. Therefore, your clothes are the proof of your New World so-called citizenship."

Despite Shakky's cool countenance, inwardly she was wondering: what was a New World native doing here in Sabaody Archipelago? It was highly unusual for a New World native to go beyond their home water, for one reason and another.

"Yeah. True. I guess." The girl shrugged, her annoyance disappearing as soon as it had come. "Doesn't matter. Not that I'm trying to hide that fact, anyway. Since you now know that I'm a New World native, can you just tell me everything about this side of the Grand Line?"

"Of course I can, but only if you give me your name first, and preferably order one drink." Shakky winked cheekily at the girl.

The girl's expression turned guarded; the tell-tale sign that she was most reluctant to give away her name. Shakky understood her sentiment. Growing up in the New World was harsh, and everyone was always wary towards strangers. The New World natives did not give their identities freely to just everyone. They chose their flocks quite meticulously.

After a while of silence; in which Shakky started to think that the girl wasn't going to give her name, the girl spoke:

"My name is Nagisa."

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><p>"Shanks."<p>

The said man turned around and was rewarded with very eye-refreshing scenery. A classic beauty of a young woman dressed in green cheongsam was standing on the railing of his ship like she was standing on the wooden floor of his ship. Her oriental face was emphasised as her silky black hair was pulled into two identical small buns at the side of her head.

"Oh, hi, Mei-chan. How are you doing?" Shanks said cheerily as he approached the young lady.

"For Trinity-knows-how-many-times-already, stop bastardising my name. It's Meifeng, not

Mei." She rolled her eyes in exasperation.

"Aww… but your sisters call you so, why can't I—"

"Nagisa sneaked out of the New World." Meifeng cut him off in mid-sentence impatiently. Her voice was stern and her tone was clearly displeased.

Shanks blinked and stopped in his tracks; his complaints and whining thrown over the deck and drowned into the wild sea of the New World. After a while of thinking, he frowned and regarded the young woman with questioning glance.

"I thought you guys aren't allowed to step out of the New World?"

"For her, not _ye__t_." Meifeng bit her lower lip. "But whatever it is, I need to get her back into the New World. Why oh why did she decide to sneak out just when the circumstances are as complicated as they are now?" She groaned in frustration.

"I know, with the imminent war and all…" Shanks muttered as a grim expression flashed on his face.

"Shanks, are you heading to the Paradise?" Meifeng regarded the red-haired Yonkou with a hopeful look.

The Grand Line was divided into two: The 'New World' and the 'Paradise'. Nobody exactly knew how the names came about, but rumours said it that the pirates were the ones who came up with those labels. 'Paradise' was referring to the calmer side of the Grand Line, as it was decidedly like a paradise if compared to the unforgiving weathers in the 'New World'.

"Yeah... You said Kaidou is going to intercept Whitebeard's fleets while they're on their way to Marineford, right?"

A nod from Meifeng.

"I can't let that happen, then. The Whitebeard Pirates cannot afford to waste idle time doing something unrelated to saving Ace at the moment." Shanks' expression turned even grimmer, and Meifeng couldn't remember the time when she had seen Shanks' expression this serious and solemn before. "I'll go to the other side once I've finished dealing with Kaidou."

"Can you help look for Nagisa when you have the time?"

Shanks gave her a tentative smile. "Sure thing, but I can only do that after the war has been settled."

"Anything is good enough. Just drag that girl's sorry ass back here. Then _w__e_'ll deal with her accordingly."

Shanks grimaced slightly as he noted the sadistic tone that laced the oriental girl's tone; it seemed to promise some kind of torture that Shanks thought he might be better off no knowing at all. However, he was intrigued by something.

"But why would she want to go to the Grand Line?" Meifeng sighed. "Beats me."

"Did she hear about the war?" Shanks suggested. "She's quite on a good term with the Whitebeard Pirates, after all."

The girl frowned as she thought over it, before she finally shook her head. "Unlikely. She's been gone even before the news reached this New World."

Meifeng turned to the general direction of the 'Paradise' Grand Line and prayed to whatever deities existed up there that the girl hadn't done anything reckless and that Shanks could locate her without much hassle and brought her back to the New World. Then again, Meifeng knew by experience that Nagisa had the most rotten luck among them all.

* * *

><p>"So…" She said slowly in conclusive manner, "most important thing about this archipelago: I should watch out for the pirates and criminals that are flocking in this archipelago, especially kidnappers." Nagisa grimaced at the last word; she had bad experience with that lot.<p>

"I don't think you should be worried about them, seeing that you have reached this place pretty much perfectly unscathed." Shakky gave the girl a quick inspection. "They have to be fairly easy to deal with, if compared to those living in the New World, yes?"

"Kind of." Nagisa shrugged and didn't give it another thought. "As for the water of this side of Grand Line, the sailing method here is the same with in the New World, with all the log- poses thing, only much simpler than in the New World."

"Yes. And I suppose the Sea Kings here are much gentler than those living in the water of the New World." The bar-owner nodded as she inhaled another round of smoke.

"Hmm… Sounds boring." Nagisa muttered as she twirled the drinking straw of her strawberry juice drink that she had ordered from Shakky. It was pretty nice, although she suspected that Shakky had laced her juice with a bit of alcohol. Not that she minded the alcohol, though. A bit of it added a touch to her drink. "Oh, by the way, Shakky."

"Hm?"

"What's the best way to get to one of the Four Blues with the least financial expense possible?" From Shakky's expression, Nagisa could tell that the lady was perplexed as to why a New World native like her would want to go to such deathly boring place like the seas of the Four Blues. Well, she had her own reason—a private one, at that. Since she wasn't going to give the lady a chance to question it, Nagisa pummelled on with her explanation: "I didn't bring that much money from the New World, so I want to cut my expenditure as short as possible."

"Hmm… Cheapest way will be to stowaway into one of those ships going back to one of the Four Blues, although the number of ships going back and forth from the Four Blues to Grand Line is far and between." Shakky said at length. "I reckon that it's still worth it to visit the harbours and ask around. You might find one or two ships sailing for the Four Blues."

Nagisa stared at her half-finished drink and stirred the content lazily as she donned a contemplative expression. She supposed that it wouldn't hurt to go around and gather information. She was used to it, anyway. Yeah, that sounded like a plan. For now.

"Okay. I'll just gather some info." Nagisa finished her drink in one big swing and stood up from the stool—or rather jumped from the stool because she was oh-so-short-curse-her- genes. She took out her wallet from her drawstring bag but Shakky promptly raised a hand. Nagisa looked at her and gave a questioning look.

"The juice is on the house." The bar-owner smiled.

"Huh?" Nagisa raised an eyebrow. "So what's the point of you telling me to buy a drink before you answer my questions?"

"Just for the fun of it. I was bored, and you came with your questions to kill the boredom. Consider it payment for keeping me company for a while." Shakky winked at her.

Nagisa blinked and broke into a clear laugher that rang pleasantly in the quiet bar.

"You're funny, Shakky. But thanks, really. I'll swing by later when I'm done with info- hunting."

"Please do come back. I might be able to find something to help you go to the Four Blues." Nagisa couldn't help but to stare at the lady.

"Do you go out of this bar often?"

"Not exactly." Shakky gave an easy shrug. "Then how do you—?"

"Trade secret." Shakky gave a playful secretive smirk. "Now run along, girl. We'll exchange information later."

Nagisa rolled her eyes.

"Whatever." But she still laughed in the end. "See you again later, Shakky!"

And with the fleeing flutter of the tails of her dark deep blue obi and her tightly-bound hair, and the shrill chime of the bell attached on the door, Nagisa walked out of the bar and towards the direction of Sabaody Archipelago's harbour. If Shakky's information had been correct—which Nagisa suspected was deathly accurate; Shakky sounded awfully like those hard-core information brokers—then the harbour would be scattered in Grove 50 until 59.

Nagisa groaned at the number. That was a helluva huge place to cover.

* * *

><p>Trafalgaw Law of the Heart Pirates was feeling pleased. His journey so far had been quite smooth and to his liking. His submarine was reaching Sabaody Archipelago soon; which would be the last stop in Grand Line before he and his crew entered the New World. He could see the outline of the archipelago on the monitor screen in the Control Room; in which he was standing right at the moment. He was going to make a name for himself and his crew, and he was going to do it relatively soon enough. He was excited with the prospect of going into the New World. From people's description, the place seemed to promise some sort of entertainment for him, with all the quirks of the Mother Nature at their extremes there.<p>

"Uh, captain?"

Law turned his head towards the direction of the voice and found Shachi standing at the entrance door of the Control Room. He wore the blue casquette hat with red rim, as well as a pair of sunglasses. Law then gave the young man the 'speak up' look.

"Can I ask you something?"

Law regarded Shachi with a raised eyebrow. It wasn't unusual for his crewmembers to ask him questions. Oh no, don't get him wrong. They do not question his decisions or thinking; they usually ask for knowledge, and Law was more than happy to help educate his crew. It would be no good if his crew comprised of a bunch of no-brains. Nope.

"Ask away." Law said with in a drawl. It was rather tedious of him to ask that question because everyone in the crew knew that he would answer all their questions as long as they did not question his orders.

"Um… Well… The only creatures that can swim in the ocean without the Yarukiman

Mangrove bubbles are mermaids, fishmen, aquatic animals, and sea kings…right?"

Law's eyebrows shot up even higher. That was a very...strange question. Not to mention silly. Whatever possessed Shachi that he began asking such questions? Anyway, his crew asked him questions and so he ought to answer him. Law then answered the man with the gait and tone of someone who didn't give a rat's ass whether the world was round, rotund, flat, oval, square, rectangle, or whatever else.

"So far as I know, yes they are the only ones who can swim freely in oceans without limitations." He paused in consideration of a thought, and the voiced out the said thought: "What makes you ask that?"

"Well… It's just that…" Shachi shuffled in his feet nervously; very much like a little boy who was being forced to spill out a secret or to confess the reason why he has just stolen a candy when it wasn't snack-time. "I was just looking out to the sea from one of those windows on the sub. Looking at the water around the archipelago when suddenly I saw this…human-like creature…" He swallowed with uncertainty.

Law narrowed his eyes slightly. "Human-like creature?"

"Looks like a human. No fin, no tail. Human limbs, human torso, human head."

"But?" Law prompted patiently.

"But…well, you see, captain…" Shachi finally lifted his eyes off the dull, deathly boring floor of the submarine and gazed into his captain's stormy-grey eyes for once. "I saw her swimming past our submarine just like that. No swimming equipment whatsoever. Just…Just like _this_." He gestured at his whole body awkwardly.

Law's eyes widened exponentially. "_H__e__r_?"

"Yeah… Looks like a girl, but I couldn't be sure. The water might be playing tricks on my eyes…"

They haven't even set a foot at the archipelago, and already his crew discovered something worth investigating. A human girl capable of swimming in the deep sea of Grand Line without any swimming equipment? Interesting. Really, _r__e__ally _interesting. Law had to find out just what she was made of, to be able to pull of that stunt.

* * *

><p>"I swear that whatever deities are lazing around up there, they have to be bored out of their mind so they decide to make my life friggin' hard." Nagisa muttered vehemently as she flopped down on one of the sstools in Shakky's Rip-Off Bar.<p>

"No luck in the harbour then, I take it?" Shakky regarded her from up to toe.

Nagisa could feel Shakky's eyes scanning her up and down. Well, she couldn't blame her. After all, she came back to the bar a few hours later dripping wet from the tip of her hair to the point of her boots. She probably looked like those cats that had been half-drowning in deep water. The only thing on her person that wasn't wet was her drawstring bag. Since Shakky was already putting that amused curious expression on her face, Nagisa felt that she might as well beat her to it.

"I asked around the harbour, and not a single bloody ship out there is sailing for one of the Four Blue. Then, a drunkard loitering around the area decided to hit on me—or to be more precise, _int__e__n__d__e__d _to grope me with his filthy, grubby hands—and so I beat him to the last inch of his life."

Shakky laughed at her choice of words, while Nagisa continued muttering some Wano curses under her breath as she grabbed the towel that Shakky had generously offered her. Nagisa took off the accessories on her hair and began drying her hair while continuing with her story.

"After I finished kicking his sorry ass to the next month, I decided to take a swim in the ocean. I always do that whenever I'm upset. The sea calms me."

"Even in the New World?"

Shakky sounded positively taken aback, and Nagisa couldn't see why it was so strange. Perhaps for a moment she had forgotten that the weather in the 'Paradise' Grand Line was not as erratic as in the 'New World' Grand Line.

"Yeah." Nagisa replied with the isn't-that-obviously-so tone and a raised eyebrow. "So, do you have any news about any ships heading for the Four Blues?"

"No news so far." Shakky shook her head and she was still looking at Nagisa with a strange expression; it made Nagisa feel like Shakky was trying to read her inside and out.

Uneasy by Shakky's sudden newfound interest in her, Nagisa looked around the bar—the disappointment with the lack of news forgotten—and before long she noticed the stack of newspapers on the counter top.

"Say, Shakky?"

"Hm?" Shakky was still looking at her with that ever-intrigued expression on her face. Damn, she was pretty bold with it. Nagisa fought the urge to squirm uneasily like some worms sprinkled with salts.

Nagisa stared at the newspapers for a while as she tried to ransack her brains; trying to find those questions that she had listed down regarding this side of Grand Line that Shakky might have not told her. By some devilish celestial luck, she had lost the hand-written list she had made when she had just departed from her home island. Curse the nasty deities up there that were taking delight in messing with her. Pfft. In the end, she settled with one:

"Tell me about the latest scoop in here."

"Latest scoop, hm?" At this, Shakky turned to look at the stack of newspapers that Nagisa was looking at. "Let's see…" The bar-owner tapped her chin with her sinewy finger as she cast her eyes heavenward in thinking gesture. "I suppose it will be the Supernova."

Nagisa's eyebrows rose up so sharp that they disappeared beneath the curtain of her bangs.

"The _w__hat_?"

"The Supernova. They are eleven pirate rookies who have earned bounties more than 100 million Berri in their first pirating debut."

"Huh." Nagisa was only mildly interested. "So who are they?"

Shakky then told her about those eleven pirates while Nagisa fixed her hair and put back all of her accessories. Although Shakky spoke in a perfectly calm demeanour, Nagisa could see that she was pretty excited about these rookies. Nagisa failed to see what was so interesting about these pirates. Well, she was one of the practitioners of 'seeing is believing', so she had to see them in action first before she could get all enthusiastic about them. She doubted that she would ever be. As such, by the end of Shakky's tale about the Supernovas, Nagisa still didn't have any conclusions about them. Well, actually she did have two.

"You don't seem to be very happy to hear about Trafalgar Law." Shakky pointed it out right on the money.

Nagisa made a face.

"His epithet is the 'Surgeon of Death'." She stated, as if that would explain the reason of her negative response to that title.

"So it seems. Why does that bother you?"

"I hate doctors." Nagisa hissed. "Especially _surg__e__ons_."

"Well…" Shakky took the wanted poster of the man in question and stared as it as if by doing so would give her more information regarding him. "It doesn't necessarily reflect his real job, though. He is the captain, after all. Perhaps it only reflects the manner in which he deals with his enemies."

"And the way one deals with others reflect their personality, which in itself is already saying something about him…" Nagisa murmured hatefully, but apparently Shakky decided to tune out this particular mumbling.

"I heard that his Devil Fruit power is quite…bizarre, to say the least."

"Devil Fruit user, huh…" Nagisa narrowed her eyes. "Monkey D. Luffy is also a Devil Fruit user, right?" Nagisa said softly, with a tinge of curiosity lacing her tone.

Most of the Supernovas seem to be Devil Fruit users, with only a handful of them who earned the title fair and square by the means of their own natural human capacities—and mostly some inhumane trainings. Pfft, the Great Era of Pirates, her ass. It was more suitable to be called the Great Era of Devil Fruit Users. Compared to those great pirates that her grandfather told her, this new generation of pirate seemed to be less impressive. What a shame.

"Yes. I suppose his Devil Fruit power has the properties of rubber." Shakky then chuckled fondly. "Monkey-chan is such an amusing one, and charming in his own way." Shakky seemed to notice the look of 'how the hell did you come up with that statement' look on Nagisa's face, because she then continued: "I've just met him and a few of his crew."

"He's here?" Nagisa's eyes lit up upon hearing that news. Well, that was one good news after rows of consecutive bad news that had been bombarding her these past few weeks.

"Yes. They came in here shortly after you went for the harbour."

Or partially not.

Again, it seemed that Shakky read her expressions well—or maybe she was just the one being too expressive for her own goodness—because she then told her how to find the Straw Hats captain.

"He's in the Sabaody Park right now, looking for someone but I suppose right now he's enjoying himself there." Shakky gave a small laugh of amusement, possibly imagining the goofy-faced pirate captain squealing like a little kid while going from one ride to another in the archipelago's humongous amusement park. "Why don't you go there? You may be able to find him, though the park is quite big."

"I'm going!" Without wasting another second, Nagisa jumped off the stool and passed the towel back to Shakky. "Thanks for the info, Shakky! I'll see you again later!"

Without even waiting for a response from Shakky, Nagisa had bolted out of the bar, leaving a shocked Shakky and a violently swinging door in her wake. She had totally forgotten about her drawstring bag; which she had put on the floor next to the stool she had been occupying a few seconds before.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Author's Note<strong>: __Again, I beseech thee to press the button below and review =D_


	3. A Point of Interest

_**Disclaimer**: __One__Piece belongs to Eeichiro Oda-sensei and whatever else that have rights on it. This is for personal use and not for commercial use._

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 3<strong>

_**A POINT OF INTEREST**_

* * *

><p>He had come to the Human Auction House to amuse himself, thinking that perhaps he would see something interesting enough. However, he wouldn't have dreamed that he would see the living legend 'Dark King' Silvers Rayleigh right there right then with his own two eyes. At first it was just a baseless suspicion; a gut feeling. However, when the old man released a burst of energy wave that knocked out most of the audience in the auction-hall-turned-battleground; with the exception of the pirates, his suspicion was confirmed. Not many people outside the Marines could use Conqueror's Haki like that.<p>

Law recalled one of the many lessons he had back then when he was still oh so young in North Blue.

"_T__he __Pirate __K__ing Gold __R__og__e__r? Oh, __y__ou __m__e__an Gol __D. Rog__e__r?" _

_"__Gol D. Rog__e__r? __N__ot Gold Rog__e__r?"_

"_Y__e__hahahaha! __N__aaaah. __Some __p__e__ople __just __ha__v__e __s__u__c__h __bad __h__e__aring. __Or __e__y__e__sight. __An__y__ho__w__, __no, it__'__s Gol D. Rog__e__r. So __y__ou __w__ant to h__e__ar about the__ c__r__e__w __of the __late __Pirate __K__i__n__g?"_

"_Y__ou __k__now __th__e__m, Gramps?"_

"_W__hat__'__s __w__ith __that __skeptical __ton__e__,__bo__y__? __One __of __t__h__e__se __da__y__s __I__'__m __going __to __pumm__e__l __that __out __of __y__our mann__e__rism."_

"_I__t__'__s __just __too __good __to __be true __that __y__ou__'__re __a__c__quain__t__an__c__e __of __the __late __Pirate __K__ing. __I'__m __just __b__e__ing r__e__alistic __h__e__r__e__."_

"_R__e__alisti__c__,__e__h? __Fair __e__n__o__ugh, __y__ou __smart__-__mouth__e__d __brat. __I may not __p__e__rsonally __k__now __th__e__m, __but one of __his __c__r__e__w __had __c__om__e to __v__isit __my __pla__c__e __on__c__e __b__e__fore in __the past. __L__e__t__'__s __s__ee__… __I __c__an __t__e__ll __y__ou that Gol D. Rog__e__r is infamous for his monstrous __Ha__k__i."_

"_Ha__k__i?"_

"_Ah, __y__ou __don__'__t __k__now __a__bout __it? __N__o? __W__e__ll, __I __s__u__ppose __I __shouldn__'__t __be __s__u__rpris__e__d __about __that. __W__hat? __Y__ou __w__a__n__t __to __l__e__a__r__n __about __it? __I__t__'__s __pr__e__tty __o__b__v__ious, __judging __from __th__a__t __look __in __y__our __eye__s and __that __anno__y__ing __smirk __y__ou __ha__v__e __th__e__r__e__. __W__e__ll, __in __that __c__ase __c__on__v__i__n__c__e __m__e t__h__at __y__ou__'__ll__ be w__orth __my time __t__e__a__c__hing __y__ou about __Ha__k__i."_

Law would still smile to himself when he remembered that day. It was the day that he first announced his dream to find One Piece and; as the most probable consequence of finding that fabled treasure, become the next Pirate King. He remembered the old man laughing his ass off until he had muscle cramps.

Back then in North Blue, Law used to have a mentor; a master. His master was an old man who came to Law's town when Law was only 12-years-old, and he had set up a bladesmith workshop there. Lucky for him there was no other bladesmiths in town, so he practically had no competition. The townspeople said that he came from a very far away country, but none of them knew exactly what country it was. Some said that the old man himself had mentioned 'somewhere beyond North Blue or even further'. Law had been intrigued about the old man, especially since the way he dressed was so peculiar in his younger eyes. After a series of events with the old man, the old man then became his master in swordsmanship and an extent of martial arts.

The old man had told him about Haki but had refused teaching him the technique because he claimed that Law had been too young to learn about it yet. It was only near the end of his apprenticeship that the old man did teach him about the basics of Haki; at that time Law was 21-years-old. That was two years ago, and Law never had the chance of having a proper Haki lesson. Even so, the old man hadn't been able to show him a Conqueror's Haki because he didn't possess it. He also didn't know if Law had it or not; it was not something that could be gained; it was a so-called birth-right, as the old man called it.

When Silvers Rayleigh's Haki blasted through him, he just knew by instinct that it was a Conqueror's Haki. Although he was indeed taken aback by the sudden realization that the old man standing under the same roof at the moment was the legendary 'Dark King' Silvers Rayleigh, inwardly Law was uncontrollably excited.

Finally he managed to find someone with Conqueror's Haki.

* * *

><p>She could not believe her eyes—or at least, almost. It was a submarine, yes that much she knew and she believed her eyes for that. However, it was yellow. The submarine was <em>fr<em>_e__a__k__in g__ye__llo__w_, for Trinity's sake! Whoever chose that colour had to be the biggest idiot in the whole world. Seriously? Submarines were supposed to be stealthy and this bright yellow colour did nothing to help accomplish that description. If anything, she could bet that this submarine would be a sore thumb in the deep ocean, as if it had a signpost saying "Hey I'm here so come and get me~~" Even worse, there was the DEATH insignia on the wall of the said yellow submarine.

_T__he __o__w__n__e__r of this subma__r__ine __is d__e__finit__e__ly __a ps__yc__ho, _the girl thought with a grimace.

The only reason that Nagisa was currently in the harbour and not in the famous Sabaody Park was because she had gone there and could find neither the hide nor the tail of Straw Hat Luffy. So, with dark thunderous clouds of disappointment hanging around her, she had decided to visit the harbour once more in hope to find any more news about any ships going for one of the Four Blues.

However, the bad choice of colour aside, Nagisa had to say that she was quite intrigued by the submarine. Her cousin and uncle were both renowned engineers in the New World, and so she knew a bit of machinery as she often frequented their place to play. As a matter of fact, she remembered seeing a flippin' yellow submarine when she was swimming in the sea before. However, she had just taken a dozen steps towards the submarine when a voice from above yelled at her.

"Heyya! Whatcha think y'er doin'?" The voice said loudly.

Nagisa obediently stopped and looked up to scrutinize the one who had shouted at her. It was a rather large man wearing a white jumpsuit with a smiley on the chest, and a plain yellow cap was perching on his head. His brown hair was slightly curly, reaching past his shoulders, and with a pair of funny whiskers that curled up in perfect crescent. He was standing at the edge of the dock of the submarine, apparently on the look-out.

"You're talking to me?" She asked while pointing to herself.

"No, 'm talkin' to the Yarukiman Mangrove behind ya." He said sarcastically, and the girl blinked. "OF COURSE 'm talkin' to ya! Seen anyone else 'round here?"

"Well." The girl said airily with a noncommittal shrug. "I was just making sure."

"Hmm…" Nagisa could tell from the man's tone that he didn't know what to make of her gesture. Not that it was her problem, though. "Ne'er seen a submarine b'fore?"

"I have. But…" She casted another distasteful glance at the submarine that was painted in glaring yellow.

"But?" The man asked curiously.

"It's yellow."

"So it is." The man nodded, not quite understanding where the problem lay.

"It's a yellow submarine." Nagisa said again with an emphasis.

"So? Problem is?"

"It's _c__onspi__c__uous._" She stressed the last word with a hiss, as if annoyed by the man's lack of intelligence.

The man only shrugged. "Well, been like that since the first time me joined the crew. If ya wonder why it's yellow, then ask the Cap'n. He hassit with him since the first time, me think."

"Captain? Who's your captain?" The man raised his eyebrows.

"Don't know who we are, girlie?" The man asked while pointing at the smiley on his chest with his thumb.

"Not a single idea. Enlighten me, please." The girl said with a wry smile.

"Man…" The crewmember stared at the girl with incredulous eyes. "Ya follow news at all?"

"No, but what does that have to do with all this?" She frowned, unhappy with the digression.

"We've been all over the papers and ya don't know? Where've ya been livin' in?"

"Well…" She couldn't very well tell him that she was a native of the New World, could she?

"We're the Heart Pirates!" The man said dramatically while throwing his arms heavenwards.

The girl's eyes widened and something glinted across her turquoise eyes. Then, her expression turned oh so hateful that the man looked like he was ready to make a beeline for the Den Den Mushi to call for backup from his captain.

"The 'Surgeon of Death'…" She spat the words like they were the most disgusting words that ever existed in dictionary.

"A—aye, that's our cap'n."

"And where is he now?" She all but growled at him; scaring the poor man witless.

While she didn't have any personal grudge against the Heart Pirates and its captain, the epithet of the captain was enough to drive her into her 'murder' mode. Oh, how she hated doctors and all other professions that branched from it! She wasn't asking so that she could find the said 'Surgeon of Death' and murdered him inside and out, but more because she wanted to avoid him as best as she could. It was already bad enough that the first thing she had to see when she reached the harbour was the glaringly yellow submarine. Curse the captain and his horrible choice of colour!

"Uh…He's…" The man's eyes flicked to the general direction behind Nagisa, and he gave a look that very much resembled relief. "Comin' right here from behind ya."

"_W__hat_?"

Another rotten luck for her. Kudos for the gods up there and their very bad sense of humour when she was concerned.

_Oh, gods. __W__hat h__a__v__e __I __d__o__ne __in my __pr__ev__ious life __th__a__t all th__e__se __ha__v__e __to happ__e__n to m__e__?__!__!_

"Uh…" His happy expression turned worried then. "In a not very nice condition."

Nagisa spun on her heels and she was indeed presented with the scene of Trafalgar Law—as she recognised from his wanted poster—and his crewmates sauntering their way towards the submarine as if they had the whole time in the world. They indeed looked worse for wear; with cuts all over their outfit and bruises all over their bodies. Nagisa honestly didn't give a shit about it. She really didn't give a rat's ass even when some of them were missing some limbs or not. What she did give a damn was the nodachi that Trafalgar Law was carrying in his hands.

She knew that particular long sword. That was the only one of its kind.

Question was: how did Trafalgar Law manage to get his filthy, pirate-sy hands on it?

"Oi. That nodachi he has…How did he get it?" She tried asking the man still standing on the dock of the submarine.

"Hm? Da freakishly long sword? Dunno. Been with cap'n since f'rever."

With that in mind, Nagisa was now torn. She really wanted to just grab the captain and shook some answers regarding the nodachi right out of him, but at the same time she absolutely didn't want to have anything to do with the 'Surgeon of Death'.

"_I__t do__e__sn__'__t n__ece__ssarily __r__e__fl__ec__t his r__e__al job, though."_

Shakky's words echoed in her mind. Perhaps Shakky was right? Should she make sure first? If Trafalgar Law was really a doctor or a surgeon by profession—oh Trinity forbade it, but then again the gods had been against her as of late—then she would scram right out of the place. But the nodachi… She couldn't shake the feeling that she really had to check about the origin of the long sword in Law's hands. Nagisa's eyes flickered from the nodachi to its wielder. To her horror—and as her ultimate rotten luck would allow her—her turquoise eyes met with Trafalgar Law's stormy-grey eyes.

_D__e__ar gods up th__e__r__e__. I __ha__t__e__ y__ou so SO __v__e__ry__m__u__c__h._

* * *

><p>He had seen her from quite a distance away, even before his crewmember on the dock spotted him and his entourage. It would seem that she had been talking with one of his crew for a while already, and the girl had turned around when his crew had—he assumed—alerted her about their coming. Her reaction was curious for him. While it was not unusual for people to get frightened when they see pirates walking towards them for whatever reasons, the emotion that the girl's eyes were transmitting was not that of fear or anything the likes. It was more of frustration and exasperation.<p>

"Uh, Captain?" Shachi asked from behind him.

"Yes?" He was only half-listening to Shachi; he was still intrigued by that strange girl giving that odd look.

"That girl…She looks the same as that thing I saw swimming in the ocean the other time."

Okay, that grabbed all of Law's attention.

"Are you sure?"

"Pretty much, yeah."

Now that changed the whole thing.

"Sam!" Law called out at his crew who was standing on the dock.

"Yeah, cap'n?"

"Get her."

One heartbeat, one blink from Sam, and one funny choking sound from the girl.

"Aye aye!"

And then all hell broke loose.

"What the friggin'—HOLY SEA KINGS! What the hell was that for, you asshole?" The girl shrieked as she had just narrowly avoided the net Sam had just cast on her direction from the deck.

"Cap'n's order, girl. Sorry."

"Sorry my ass! Don't say it when you don't bloody mean it—FLIPPIN' MOTHER OF PEARLS! Are you really serious on catching me like a fish?" Again the girl shrieked at the top of her lung in blatant indignation as she slipped from the nasty clutch of Sam's net like a slippery eel.

"Ya heard the cap'n."

"YOU FREAAAAAK!"

"You guys." Law turned to the entourage behind him, complete with a devilish smirk on his face. "Help Sam catch her."

"Aye-aye, Captain!"

With that, Law's crew all dashed towards the livid girl and Sam—who was having a hard time catching up with the girl's speed. Jean Bart stayed behind; looking somewhat at loss on what was happening. Feeling rather generous at the moment, despite two consecutive tough battles with two Pacifistas and barely escaping without missing any limbs, Law decided to fill in the newest member of the Heart Pirates.

"Shachi saw the girl swimming in the ocean without any equipment at all." He said while turning to the man.

Law knew that Jean Bart was no idiot. He would understand that Law was referring to the girl swimming in the deep water instead of just wading through the shallow water around the archipelago. The hulking figure of a man did seem surprised at the statement, but he took the information in strides.

"No wonder you're interested in her." He nodded. "What are you going to do with her once you catch her?"

"Who knows? I'll see when the time comes." Law said with a smirk that was probably bordering sadistic.

"CAPTAIN!"

Law turned around and was quite surprised to see how winded up his crew was while the girl was nowhere to be seen. His crew was running towards him; most of them with despairing look on their faces. It seemed that they were even disappointed with themselves for failing on catching a single girl.

"We *_w__h__ee__z__e_* can't *_w__h__ee__z__e_* catch her *_w__h__ee__z__e_* She's too *_w__h__ee__z__e_* damn *_w__h__ee__z__e_* FAST!" The man wearing blue cap with flaps on the side and the caption PENGUIN on it said while wheezing like he was suffering from high degree of asthma.

"He's *_w__h__ee__z__e_* right *_w__h__ee__z__e_*" Shachi said, and pointed to Sam who was on the verge of collapsing out of sheer exhaustion, as if emphasising his point by means of the poor man's evident suffering.

Law frowned at this. His crew wasn't just any average pirate crew; each and every one of them were handpicked by him, and not to mention that he had—as the acting doctor of the crew—made sure that his crew was always at their top performance. Some of them were even medically enhanced when possible or needed, so there was no way that an ordinary girl could just escape from four of his men. There was the possibility that she might be a pirate, but that was a bit unlikely since she seemed to be the type who worked alone, if his first impression of her was accurate enough. What was she, then?

"Which direction did she go to?" He asked his men, and they all pointed to one particular direction while still wheezing the exhaustion out of them.

Following the direction of those fingers, Law could see that the girl had headed towards the town district of the archipelago and—he didn't think that it was a coincidence on the girl's part; she most likely had planned it—towards the place where the Marines were particularly concentrated. She was probably asking for reinforcement to get back to him and his crew.

As if to answer Law's suspicion while throwing it to his face, there were raucous noises coming from where the girl had disappeared to. Soon enough, a throng of Marines soldiers made their (in Law's opinion) untimely appearance.

"There they are!"

"The Heart Pirates!"

"Get them!"

Law remained calm as he assessed the situation while his crew was well into panic attacks; except for the ever-composed Jean Bart. If anything, he seemed just mildly annoyed by the persistent Marines who didn't know that they just weren't a match for the pirates.

"Heart Pirates! Not only that you have committed grave sin by participating with the Straw Hats in assaulting a Tenryuubito, but you also have tried to kidnap an innocent little girl! You truly know no shame!" One officer of the Marines declared while brandishing his sword at their general direction.

The small-bodied girl from before—the one whom the Marine Officer had claimed to be the almost-victim of kidnapping—then peeked from behind the officer's broad back. Her eyes met with Law's, and this time she stuck a tongue and made ridiculous faces at him. The corner of Law's mouth twitched. Getting ridiculed was on the second place of his black-list; the first one being 'ordering him around'. He was oh so going to get back at her for all these hassles and rudeness.

"Yeah, yeah! Get them! Four of them were ganging up on me!" She provoked the Marine Officer more, while wearing an unnervingly mocking expression on her face.

"Four against one!" The officer cried in indignation, as if he was the one aggrieved and wronged by them. "That's it! There is no redemption for you all! Men, after them!"

"Yes, sir!"

Law was tired with the Marines and their delusion vis-à-vis their Justice. It was getting ridiculous. He looked on with disinterest as the soldiers charged towards him and his men.

"Sam, prepare the submarine. We're leaving as soon as I've dealt with this situation." Law told the chubby man, in which the former quickly complied and scrambled his way back to the sub. "Penguin, Shachi, engage the soldier for a while. Bepo, cover for me. Jean Bart, you will be taking the back rows."

"Aye-aye!" The men said in unison as they took their battle stance.

Law raised his hand and made the clutching gesture.

"**Ro****o****m**."

Blue sphere instantly expanded from his hand until it covered all of the soldiers; including the Marine Officer that was staying behind the charging soldiers and the girl from before. Law noticed how the girl seemed to recognise what was happening in almost less than a second, and how she had acted accordingly—she tried getting out of the blue sphere. Yeah, like he was going to allow her have her way more than she already did.

"**Sh****a****m****b****l****e****s**."

In short, he had switched Jean Bart with the girl. She was instantly at his side; exactly where Jean Bart had been in a millisecond before. While Jean Bart pummelled the Marine Officer who was still shocked and spooked out of his wits, Law went after the girl. It would seem that the girl had some serious prior fighting experience before, because once she was aware of the change of her surrounding, she had balled her small fist and attempted to punch him.

Which was a failed attempt on her part, because not only that she was way shorter than Law, the latter also had the upper hand since he was not disoriented from the instant teleportation. Law quickly danced his way out of the girl's punch and delivered a knifehand strike to the side of her neck. As a doctor, Law knew just precisely how much force was to be exerted and where to hit to cut off the blood flow temporarily, and thus causing the girl to pass out on the spot. In no time, the girl's knees turned weak and she dropped like a rag doll—whom he didn't bother to catch as she went down in a heap to the ground.

"Bepo, carry her back to the sub. We are retreating." He announced with calm voice while raising a hand.

Seeing their captain's pose, they knew what he was going to do. They scampered towards the sub as per ordered. Some of the Marines were surprised by the sudden retreat and attempted to go after them, but they were stopped by their comrades.

"The captain! Go after the 'Surgeon of Death'!" Most shouted. Law just had to grin. They were like moths attracted to flame.

"**Ro****o****m**." He said with a sadistic smile plastered on his face while blue sphere engulfed all the Marine soldiers. His grin grew even wider. "**Sh****a****m****b****l****e****s**."

And voila! It was done.

* * *

><p>Shakky couldn't shake the feeling that Nagisa had gotten herself into some troubles. Earlier, when Monkey-chan and his crew had come with a wounded Hatchan and the rescued Keimi, she had inquired him on whether he had met a black-haired girl in blue outfit or not. Monkey- chan had given her a clueless blank face then. While Shakky knew that the girl could take care of herself—considering that she was a New World native—Shakky couldn't just disregard her intuition. Not to mention that the Marines had just come and the whole archipelago was in huge chaos.<p>

_P__e__rhaps __she __has __found __a __ship __that__'__s __sailing __for __the __Four __Bl__u__e__s? _Shakky thought, but quickly dismissed that notion since the girl hadn't gone back to her place to get her bag.

In any case, Shakky was worried.

"Hatchan." She turned to the wounded fishman who was resting on the make-shift bed. "Will you be fine on your own here?"

"I'll be okay, Shakky. Keimi and Pappug are looking after me here."

"Yes! We'll do our best to look after Hatchin!" Keimi said enthusiastically as she rolled up her proverbial sleeves.

"I'm counting on you then, Keimi and Pappug." Shakky winked at them, and then she went out of the bar.

The first place that Shakky visited was the harbour. Nagisa seemed desperate enough in finding a ship heading for the Four Blues, and Shakky had yet to find out why she wanted to go there. Shakky approached the people in the harbour and asked if they had seen a black- haired wearing a blue outfit. After a long search; almost an hour, she finally came upon a clue.

"Ah, I think I've seen 'er." An old man said as he nodded his wrinkled head. "Small and cute, with weird patterned blue outfit, aye?"

"Yes. Do you know where she had gone to?" Shakky asked politely.

"I saw 'er speakin' with someone standin' on this weird yellow contraption thingamajig floatin' on the sea." The old man scratched his goatee as he tried to remember the incident happening a good hour ago.

"Then?"

"And then…uh…what happened, huh?" The old man turned to some of the young ones. "Hey, boys! What happened to that yellow thingamajig?"

"It's called a submarine, old man." One of them answered with a roll of his eyes. "And that one belongs to the Heart Pirates."

Shakky's eyebrows rose at record height. Of all things that Nagisa had to get involved with…

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. Saw Trafalgar Law boarding it with his crew. All in that weird jumpsuit." The man fumbled with his pocket and took out a crumpled piece of paper. He straightened the paper and looked at it for a second before turning it to Shakky's face. "T'is the guy, right?"

Shakky gave a nod, but inside she was grimacing.

"Was there a girl with them? Black-haired, blue outfit?" Shakky asked with her ever calm voice.

"A girl?" The man frowned for a while. "I dunno…"

"Yeah, there was a girl." Another man answered. "Not that she was followin' 'em, though. She was bein' carried by the crew's pet white bear into the sub. Remember the whole commotion with the Marines? Seemed like they kidnapped 'er or sumthin' like that and the Marines tried to rescue her. But of course it failed epically."

"Right. The poor Marines all ended up with mismatchin' limbs." The men shuddered. "We'd better stay away from 'im if we don't wanna our asses to get all switched."

Shakky fought the urge to slap her forehead. It looked like Nagisa was right: the gods up there hated her.

* * *

><p>The acute throbbing in her head woke her in the most unpleasant way, but what really woke her up was a particularly disgusting smell. Furthermore, whatever she was lying on was not the most comfortable place to lie on—she felt like she had been lying on a stone bed, for Trinity's sake. She still felt disoriented, but anyway forced herself to sit up. After shaking her head to get rid of the sense of disequilibrium, she final cracked open her eyes drowsily and looked around.<p>

She instantly regretted it.

There were neat rows of jars and bottles with questionable item floating inside them. There were also other shelves that contained thick bound books and other equipment that she was painfully familiar with; as she had been their victim before. The walls, ceilings, and floor were all sickeningly pristine white, and the whole room was engulfed in the characteristic sterile smell. There were some horror-inspiring contraptions attached to the walls and ceilings of the room as well. In the first place, she should've realised where she had been confined in from that horrid nightmare-inspiring smell.

In less than a second, Nagisa's heartbeat quickened and she began shivering like she had been stuffed into a refrigerator. Her breathing came shallow soon enough and she started having an episode of hyperventilation. She had to get out of that room. That room was equivalent to hell for her. If she didn't scram from the room as soon as possible, she would die from the sheer trauma alone.

With shaky legs, Nagisa scrambled off the stiff bed. Unfortunately, she was so nervous that standing was all her legs were capable at the moment. She had to hold on to the bed frame tightly to keep her from falling butt-first to the cold tiled floor of the room until her knuckles turned white.

_Oh__gods__oh__gods… __W__h__y do__e__s __it __ha__v__e to __b__e this __pla__ce__? __Oh __d__e__ar __T__rinit__y__… _She was close to having an epileptic panic attack, but she tried to be brave. _O__k__a__y__, __o__k__a__y__, __r__e__l__a__x__.__ T__h__e__r__e'__s __nobody h__e__r__e__.__ N__one of __those god__d__amn __ma__c__hin__e__s __are on.__ T__h__e__y ar__e__n__'__t __b__e__ing __us__e__d. __I'__m __not __strapp__e__d. __I'__m still fu__l__l__y-c__loth__e__d, __T__rinity __bl__e__ss m__e__. E__ve__r__y__thing__'__s fin__e__._

The result of her pep-talk, however, was soon murdered by the soft clicking sound of the lock of the door being turned.

_T__his __goddamn __room __has __b__ee__n __friggin' lo__c__k__e__d. _She stared at the door Even if she had tried to escape, she wouldn't have been able to.

Nagisa stared at the door with horror—as if a mouth with a set of razor-sharp teeth had just grown out of the surface of the said door—as the doorknob was turned and the door swung open noiselessly. A lanky man wearing spotted furry hat and a yellow-black hoodie was revealed behind the door. Nagisa studied the man: he had tanned skin and black hair, with thick dark rings under his eyes, and he had an expression that only spoke of 'sadistic psychopath' to her. When he saw her standing, a grin spread on his face; making Nagisa flinched.

"I see that you're awake. How long have you been awake?" The man asked in relatively polite manner.

Needless to say that Nagisa didn't answer his question—or rather, she couldn't. She wasn't any coward; she was far from it. However, who wouldn't freeze in terror when they were forced to stay inside a room that forced them to relive the most horrendous memories that they ever had in their entire life so far and by far?

Law studied the girl with intent eyes. She was standing on her two legs, yes, but she looked like those legs could melt into useless jelly any time soon. That was strange. He didn't administer any drugs to her after he had brought her into the submarine. The only thing he did to her was to knock her out on the shore of the Sabaody Archipelago and then dumped her in one of the beds in his infirmary.

Also, the girl didn't answer his question; though it seemed that she _c__oul__d__n__'__t _answer anything at all. From his brief observation of her when Sam and the others were trying to catch her, she had quite a quick-mouth and sharp-tongue. It was strange to see the girl so quiet, while earlier he had seen just how devilishly deviant she was; what with calling an army of Marine soldiers just to get back at him for ordering his men to catch her.

"Not so feisty now, aren't we?" Law inquired curiously, at the same trying to bait the girl into speaking.

Still the girl remained mute with that horrified expression on her face. Law frowned. What was wrong with the girl now? She looked like she could get a killing heart attack upon the slightest provocation. Deeply curious now, Law started advancing towards the girl—an act that elicited a cry of terror from the girl.

"NO! Don't come near me! Stay away!" She shrieked as she violently backed away, hitting the bed behind her with her body and causing her to stagger.

Wordlessly, Law continued advancing towards her mercilessly as he kept his eyes fixed on her. Under normal circumstances, Law would have spewed some promises of tortures and painful deaths to her for crudely ordering him around like that, but the tone and the quiver in her voice told him that she wasn't in the right mind. Law had been a professional doctor before, and he knew when to handle his temper when facing an obviously out-of-her-mind 'patient'. Though he still wasn't all too pleased with it.

"I—No—don't—" The girl started fumbling around her outfit, and she froze as if Aokiji had just hit her with his Devil Fruit power.

Law smirked smugly at this.

"Looking for your weapons, Miss? Unfortunately for you, I have ordered my men to take all of your weapons from your person." Law said airily. "And you surprisingly have a lot of weapons hidden all over your body. I'm surprised by how creative you are when it comes to hiding weapons. How did you learn that?"

It was true. He had ordered Bepo to 'relieve' her of all the weapons that she had—for reason that she was a female and Bepo was the best choice to strip the girl off her weapons since he was neutral and had no feelings whatsoever towards female humans. It would be more effective and efficient than having the other males of his crew to do the weapons-stripping; he didn't want to treat any of his crew for severe nose-bleeding cases. He had been taken aback when Bepo showed him the varieties and the sheer number of weapons that the girl had carried with her. They were A LOT. Most of them were small daggers and knives that could be easily hidden underneath her garments, but there were other odd weapons such as things that looked like ice-breakers and fine needles. She also had pouches of strange powders and chemicals that he had intended to study later. Interestingly, most of the bladed weapons had black blade.

"Y, you took all my weapons…?" She squeaked pitifully. The girl looked as if Law had just sentenced her to death.

"I couldn't very well let a fully-armed person in my submarine when she's not part of my crew, could I?" He tried to smile amicably at her, but it didn't seem to work. If anything, she seemed to be enraged.

"You bloody _k__idnapp__e__d _me!" She growled, her fear momentarily disappeared.

"The fault was not with me." Law said back, still with the smug grin on his face.

"What?"

"You were being too interesting." He elaborated with amusement in his voice.

The next thing he knew, he had a pair of small hands savagely wrapped around his neck.

* * *

><p>Penguin had been just passing by the infirmary when he heard the commotion from inside the said room. He had heard a shrill cry of rage that sounded suspiciously feminine—definitely not his captain's, and in the first place his captain never <em>shri<em>_e__ke__d_—followed by loud banging sounds and some metallic screeches. Instantly he threw himself towards the door of the infirmary and virtually kicked it open; only to find his captain on the floor and with the girl from the Sabaody Archipelago on top of him, straddling him by the waist and apparently attempting to squeeze the pirate life out of his captain.

Even odder was the fact that his captain didn't fight her back.

"Captain!" Naturally, Penguin rushed to his captain's aid. "Get off him!"

Penguin grabbed the girl by her upper arm and tried lifting her off his captain, but the girl clung to Captain's neck like a parasitic life-sucking leech and, boy, wasn't her grip deadly. He then tried peeling her hands off the abused neck, but as soon as his hand was on the girl's line of sight, she responded by biting at his wrist with gusto. Not only that she really did know how to strangle people to their grotesque death, she really knew how to try to bite someone's hand off.

"AAAAARGH!"

And she was like a rabid, rabies-infected dog that wouldn't let go of her bite.

"What's happening?"

Despite being in agony, Penguin looked up and was profoundly thankful that Shachi and Bepo were around the vicinity. Their appearance might as well have saved his wrist and Captain's neck.

"Help us! Get this little fiend off us!" Penguin all but shrieked at his crewmate like a damsel in distress.

"A—alright!"

The first thing Shachi did was to disentangle the girl's murderous fingers around Captain's neck. When he finally managed to do so, he heard a sharp intake of the blessed air from Captain. Bepo then hurriedly dragged the harassed captain away from the mad girl.

"Captain! Are you alright?" Bepo asked worriedly.

"*_c__ough__c__ough_* Bepo *_c__ough_* get some *_c__o__u__gh_* tranquilizers." The winded up captain managed between his wheezing coughs.

"Okay!"

Meanwhile, as Bepo ran off to hunt for tranquilizer in the infirmary, Shachi and Penguin were still wrestling against the berserk girl. She still hadn't let go of her bite around Penguin's wrist, and he was already feeling like his hand would fall off very soon if she didn't let go. Shachi himself already had quite a trouble restraining her hands as they had tried to scratch his face the moment they were off the captain's neck. Not to mention that her body kept on writhing and squirming, while her feet were flailing in attempt to land some nasty kicks on them.

"Here, captain!" Bepo exclaimed as he carried a syringe full of tranquilizer inside it.

"Shoot her."

"Aye-aye!"

And the fight died down a full minute after the girl was forcedly injected with the tranquilizer—which was a terrifying thing since the tranquilizer that Bepo had chosen was quite a strong one. When the girl had truly gone limp on the floor, both Shachi and Penguin dropped to their butts on the cold tiled floor while panting quite heavily.

"Man, this girl's a monster." Shachi muttered as he wiped some sweats off his face.

"Captain, what happened? Why didn't you fight back? She was obviously trying to kill you." Penguin asked as he nursed his abused wrist and stared at the knocked-out girl with wary eyes.

The captain of the Heart Pirates wasn't a very gentlemanly person. Penguin; as well as the rest of the crew, knew that the captain wouldn't hesitate to attack a girl if she meant harms to him or his crew in one way or another. As such, it seemed out of place to see him lying prone on the floor while a girl was on top of his trying to crush his windpipe into smithereens. Penguin turned to scrutinize his captain, and found him staring at the girl with equally surprised eyes. It wasn't often that his captain was that taken aback. Penguin turned his attention back to the still out-cold girl.

He could bet his whole savings that the captain would want to keep the girl for more 'investigation'.

"She…It seems that my words have somewhat provoked her, and she attacked me." Captain said, answering Penguin's first question. He then continued: "The reason why I didn't fight back is because I _c__ould not_."

"Couldn't?" Penguin and Shachi echoed him in unison while giving him an identical look of puzzlement.

"Her outfit." He gestured at her with a jerk of his chin. "It seems that some parts of them are made from Seastone."

In response to Captain's words, both Shachi and Penguin turned to stare at the girl's outfit with thick suspicion.

"We wouldn't have known…" Penguin muttered.

"Yes. None of you are Devil Fruit users, so you can't possibly tell." Captain said offhandedly. "In any case, we will need to secure her outfits together with her weapons. Bepo, take off her outfits. Shachi and Penguin, go back to whatever you were doing."

"Aye-aye, Captain!"

* * *

><p>Law craned his neck as he tried to get rid of the soreness that he had gotten from the girl's attempt to suffocate him to death. Her grip was nothing to be taken lightly. If anything, she seemed to know exactly which part of the neck to go after in order to crush his windpipe. It was only by pure luck that Penguin had heard the commotion going on in the infirmary before he had his windpipe grotesquely splintered.<p>

Bepo had taken off the outer layer of the girl's outfit; the blue shell-patterned robe. He gingerly touched it and was half-disappointed half-relieved to discover that it wasn't made of Seastone. Law picked up the fabric and examined it. It seemed like it was handmade; the embroidery was very intricate and meticulously done that even Law couldn't help but to admire such marvellous handiwork. The material was also very pleasant to touch. He would have to ask the girl where she got that material from. The sash was made of different material; it was rather coarse and tougher than the robe, and it wasn't Seastone either.

"Here, Captain." Bepo handed him the black spandex-like fabric.

Law reached out for the fabric, but just as his fingers were just about to touch the said fabric, he felt an uneasy tingling sensation on the tip of his fingers.

"Bepo, put it on this table. This is the Seastone fabric." Law said as he gestured at the examination table before him.

The white bear obediently spread the Devil-Fruit-user-unfriendly fabric on the table. Law then went and fetched the longest tweezers he had, and began inspecting the fabric with the tweezers. He had found some time ago that the Seastone wouldn't affect Devil Fruit users as long as there was no direct contact and they were put at certain safe distance; depending on the concentration and density of the Seastone. He tried stretching it using the tweezers, as well as roughly gauging its weight. The fabric was surprisingly heavy; heavier than other fabrics with the same appearance and textures.

"Uh, captain?"

"Yes, Bepo?" Law asked without averting his attention from the Seastone fabric.

"I think you need to see this…" Bepo said huskily.

Deciding to abandon his little investigation on the curious Seastone fabric for a while, Law walked towards the bed where they had put the girl. She lay there half-naked; only clad in her undergarments. Being a medical student once and having the experience of undergoing surgeries, the sight of a naked woman never affected him anymore. Not to mention that this was just a barely teenage girl with underdeveloped physique. He wasn't interested in her body. Rather, it was the things _on _her body.

Law turned her somewhat gently so that she lay on her side, and he began looking at both her front and backside. Both sides were covered with hideous scars, and from the look of them he could discern them as old scars. He traced some of the lines of scars with his sinewy fingers, and from the feels he could perceive some of them as whip wounds. The rest were mostly caused by sharp objects of all kinds. There were also some darkened spots all over her body; some larger and some smaller. Tracing those dark spots with his fingers, he could tell that some of them were the result of direct exposure to heat source or fire, and some was the result of burning with corrosive substances like acids.

The scars on her back were all old ones while the ones on the front; particularly on the chest area, were relatively new. Law then decided to concentrate on the scars on her chest as they intrigued him the most. They seemed to be deliberately made, unlike the haphazard scars all over her back. Leaning closer, Law could then make out a certain shape beneath the scars on her chest. The shape had been defaced so much that it was almost impossible to discern its original shape, but Law managed to figure it out nonetheless:

The Hoof of the Flying Dragon.

* * *

><p><em>Reviews will be very much appreciated =D<em>


	4. Hints of the Past

**Disclaimer**: One Piece belongs to Eeichiro Oda-sensei and whatever else that have rights on it. This is for personal use and not for commercial use.

* * *

><p><strong><em>Chapter 4<em>**

**_HINTS OF THE PAST_**

* * *

><p>Earlier, Law had interrogated Sam about what he had been talking with the girl prior to the whole fiasco with the Marines. When he had seen the Tenryuubito slave brand on the girl's body, he had decided then and there that he was going to investigate further about the girl's questionable and intriguing affiliations. Not just anyone could escape slavery under the Tenryuubito, and reckless individuals like Straw Hat Luffy and Fisher Tiger; both renowned for their involvement in freeing the slaves of Tenryuubito in one way and another, were far and between.<p>

Interesting bits about the whole conversation was that the girl had no idea about his crew and assumedly the general population of pirates, from Sam's description. She was rather ignorant about the world news, as well. Perhaps she came from a very backwater place, probably somewhere exotic; considering her outfit? No, that couldn't be the case, because the girl claimed that she had seen a submarine before. Sam also had noted that the girl reacted badly at the mention of his epithet 'The Surgeon of Death'. At the same time, intriguingly she had inquired Sam about his nodachi. She had asked him where Law had gotten the sword, and it itself was already something worth noting.

The sword was the only one of its kind. It was custom-made by that bladesmith old man who eventually became his master in swordsmanship and martial arts. Could it be that the girl was related to that old man? Law turned to look at the blue shell-patterned robe on the examination table. Come to think of it, the overall look and feel of the girl's outfit was reminiscence of the old man's fashion style as well. They were most likely from the same island, if not town or village.

He would have to interrogate the girl about it later. While Law had been studying under that old man for a good few years before he started his debut as a pirate, the old man hadn't been very keen in describing his home place. The only thing that he was interested in telling was about his family—which Law wasn't interested at the very least.

Speaking of the girl and the mysteries surrounding her…

Law turned to look at the girl—or specifically, what was on her presently scantily clad body. The 'Surgeon of Death' stared at the defaced mark with a frown tugging at the corner of his lips and his eyes narrowed. The more he looked at it, the more he could see shape clearly despite the attempt to destroy it. From the look of it he could tell that she had been branded years ago, but he had never heard of a slave escaping from the Tenryuubito before—granted that the World Government never published news about the Tenryuubito at all but usually news and rumours spread fast like forest fire. The only known incident of slaves running away from the Tenryuubito was when Fisher Tiger attacked Mariejois and consequently freeing many slaves.

_But that was about 13 years ago._ Law thought to himself. He looked at the face of the girl and tried to approximate her age. She didn't look past 20, and she looked more like she was still in her teens.

A soft, groggy groan escaped from the girl's mouth. Law looked down and saw that the girl was stirring awake. From what he had seen earlier from the girl's berserk state, she seemed like the type who could loop off someone's head without batting an eyelash when properly provoked. As such, Law decided to be prudent by securing the girls' wrists and ankles with the leather straps attached to the bed.

Naturally, when the girl opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was Trafalgar Law's face.

"Hello, Miss. How are you feeling?" He asked quietly with a thin smile on his face.

The girl blinked once, as if her brain was still in the process of registering what her eyes were seeing. Law waited; knowing that something interesting was bound to happen every time people donned that kind of expression. Soon enough, the girl's confused expression instantly turned into that of a burning, unrestrained rage.

The girl tried lifting her hand in attempt to slap his face off her sight, but that little dainty hand never touched Law: he had made sure to strap her down to the examination table so that she wouldn't be able to try to strangle him to horrid death again. In his knowledge—which wasn't little—usually people who found that they had been strapped down in such vulnerable supine position would be rendered squeamish and even fearful. As such, Law wasn't prepared for the violent reaction that the girl gave him.

The pupils of her eyes contracted to a degree that Law had never witnessed before in his entire career as a doctor. It was as if her eyes had turned into a blazing turquoise gem with black tint in the middle—it was a sight to behold; though most people would call it downright creepy. There was animalistic shine in those eyes. She bared her teeth like an enraged animal. There was guttural sound coming from her throat. Her fingers curled into a tight fist, with the veins and bones on her hands becoming more visible and pronounced.

And then, she screamed.

It was more like a battle cry. It was as if she was an amazonian female warrior who was charging into a war zone. She tugged at the leather straps violently, trying to break it—Law could hear the straining sound from the straps, as if they were going to snap soon. Law inadvertently took one step back, stunned by the violent outburst. He then smelt a tangy scent of blood; she had clenched her hands so tightly that her nails dug into her palms, drawing rivulets of blood from it.

She screamed and screamed, and blood started pooling on the examination bed from her palm. Her screams shook the entire submarine, and in no time there was commotion outside the door of the infirmary.

"Captain, what happened?"

"We're coming, Captain!"

"Captain!"

"STAY OUTSIDE!" Law yelled at them so that he could be heard above their noises and the girl's infernal screaming. "BEPO, GET IN! THE REST OF YOU STAY AWAY!"

There were some murmurs of excitement outside, and from the corner of his eyes Law saw the polar bear slipping into the infirmary and locking the door dutifully. Law then busied himself preparing a sedative for this screeching girl who had just gone banshee on him and his crew. He took a syringe-full of morphine hastily but not recklessly, and then turned the girl and ejected the entire content of the sedative into the girl's bloodstream.

After a full minute—Law could hardly believe that she could withstand a full minute of rampage after being shot with his strongest dose of sedative—she finally turned limp and her pupils dilated but she was still conscious. She was just very highly lethargic and in trance-like state. Now, this was a curious one.

"Bepo, prepare the Truth Serum."

"Aye, aye!"

Notwithstanding that fancy name, the Truth Serum was simply a concoction of scopolamine, morphine, and chloroform to induce a 'twilight sleep' state. The concoction could produce sedation, drowsiness, confusion, disorientation, incoordination, and amnesia for events experienced during intoxication; which was just perfect for interrogation. It was especially so since a research had proved that people in 'twilight sleep'; particularly women, were more prone in answering questions accurately and truthfully, and even volunteering surprisingly candid remarks. Law himself had conducted harmless experiments on several test subjects, and he deemed this as quite a marvellous method of obtaining information.

Of course, like other psychoactive drugs employed, there were risks in using this method. He had to be really careful with the dose of the scopolamine in the concoction, because the wrong dose could induce hallucinations and disturbed perception; which would incapacitate the interrogation and might mislead instead of enlightening them as the subjects might just spew nonsenses that their overly intoxicated brain conjured.

Bepo might be a bear—albeit a talking, bipedal one—but he had been with Law since he was a cub and he had picked up one or two tricks from Law. He knew his way around the infirmary and he knew his things well with drugs. While Bepo busied himself with meticulously preparing the concoction—a delicate task that Law entrusted to Bepo because he had personally trained the bear for this—Law took a pitcher of water and a glass for the now-sedated girl. One of the drawbacks of this concoction was that her lips would get as dry as the desert, so he had to prepare water to hydrate her lips to allow more conducive condition for talking. Law set the pitcher of water and the glass on the tray table he brought to the side of the examination bed where she was lying on. He then reflected on her excessively outrageous reaction.

It was obviously from a trauma, although the reaction was rather, well, unusual. People would usually go into the state of extreme depression when they recalled their traumatic past events, and a handful would go hysterical. This girl went beyond that: she went berserk into a frenzied, neurotic, incandescent fury. It really intrigued him why she reacted that way. There were so many possibilities for scenarios for the clinical—emotional, mental, and psychological; among many other—reasons for that reaction, and Law couldn't wait to solve this interesting little puzzle.

"Ready, Captain." Bepo finally said in his characteristic monotone voice as he gave Law a fully-loaded syringe.

"Alright. Bepo, I need you out as well. Tell the others to stop eavesdropping and get their lazy asses back to their chores."

"Aye-aye!" Bepo saluted him and went to the door.

When Bepo opened the door rather abruptly, a whole bunch of the crew crash-landed onto the tiled floor of the infirmary. An awkward silence from the men stretched for a while.

"You heard me, guys."

"S, SORRY CAPTAIN!" They hastily scrambled out of the way and back to their respective posts as if their butts were on fire.

Insufferable bunch, Law thought as the corner of his lips quirked with amusement.

Law waited until the effect of the sedative he previously administered to the girl wore off. Usually it would take hours for it to finally wear off, but seeing that the girl remained conscious even after taking a full dose of sedative—normal people would've been out cold since ages ago—this girl was definitely nowhere near normal. It could've taken her a mere one hour for the drug to wear off, for all he knew. In that light, Law stayed in the infirmary since he didn't know when she'd get lucid enough to throw another fit of unbridled rage.

When she started to stir and her pupils had started contracting from their dilated state, Law stepped closer to the examination bed. When her eyes started moving around and finally landed on Law's face, he grinned.

"Hello again, Miss."

A growl from her and Law knew that it was his cue. With expertise, Law injected the Truth Serum into the girl's arm before she went apoplectic again and waited until it took effect. Her body relaxed once more and she had a more amiable expression.

"It's rather inconvenient for me to ask questions when not knowing your name." He said bluntly with a smug grin. "What's your name, Miss?"

Her response was rather sluggish and draggy, but that was to be expected.

"…Nagisa.."

"Were you working for the Tenryuubito before?"

"…yes…"

"For how long?"

"…two…years…"

_That is a considerably short duration of slavery, considering slavery under Tenryuubito is usually for a lifetime_, Law thought fleetingly as he resumed with his questions:

"What did they do to you?"

"They…experimented on us…Inject us with strange drugs…That Tenryuubito…looked on…He…They…cut me open…cut us open and stitched us back…"

Law fought the urge to whistle. There was someone else with similar hobby, though he wouldn't cut open a _living_ human unless that person was asking for it. Still, for her to survive that kind of ordeal, she had to be bat-shit tough. That, or her drugged mind was exaggerating things—that was a possibility as well.

"…then…they made us…do…impossible things…"

"Such as?" He softly inquired.

"Like…making us sleep…on a bed of needle …or…keep us in freezer to see…how long we'll last…or…"

"How did you survive all those?" He asked curiously despite himself.

She gave him a blank look. It seemed that she herself didn't quite understand how she survived all those.

"…I wished I had died…back then…" She blurted out. "…It was so, so painful…The pain…"

"When did you start working for them?" Law cut her off with another question before she went too far that way and started hallucinating. He needed to keep her in focus.

"…I…" her face scrunched up slightly, as if she was trying to recall something she didn't really remember. "It was…I don't…"

"How old were you back then?"

"…I was…" She frowned more. "…I…"

_She really couldn't recall?_ Law thought in confusion. Why was it so hard for her to remember the time?

"When did you escape from them?"

Still no definite answer.

"How did you escape?"

A long stretch of silence. When Law thought that he'd need to find another way to get her to remember, she suddenly answered.

"…There was fire…"

"Fire?" At last he was getting somewhere.

"…Fire…Everyone's so scared... Red…Fire… Blood…" Her pupils dilated further. "…Screams…Someone's holding me…Carry me out…Someone's killing those bad people…He told us to run…Run away…"

_A huge attack on Mariejois. It was during the time of Fisher Tiger's attack, then._ Law concluded._ That was 13 years ago. She was enslaved for two years._

"How old are you now, Miss Nagisa?"

"…Eighteen…"

Well, that was older than Law's own estimation. He had thought she would be around fifteen. She certainly didn't look like an eighteen-years-old. Now, doing his math, he found out that she had been a slave when she was…three years old? No wonder she couldn't recall her age back then. She had been too young. The only reason why she remembered those tortures was perhaps from the nightmares that plagued her for years after her liberation.

Perhaps this was the reason why she had gone after his throat when he had said that she had been interesting—the Tenryuubito and the scientists that experimented on her most probably had said that as well. Also, it explained why she had been terrified with him at the first sight; she must have seen his bounty poster and his epithet that was written on it. "Surgeon of Death" surely seemed to spell like 'death sentence' to an experimentation victim like her.

"…the smell of sea…red hair…big tattoo…cloaks…" Miss Nagisa continued drawling aimlessly, divulging more information that Law hadn't asked for. "…nice people…go back home…Mommy…Daddy…Gra…mps…"

Law tensed at the last broken word. Sadly, before he could ask her about it—he had forgotten to ask about her origin in his curiosity of her enticingly dark past—she had succumbed into a dreamless sleep. Law frowned in displeasure at this. Perhaps the body had taken its toll; going into rampage once and being drugged twice in a row. Seeing that there was nothing he could do since her body wouldn't be up for another round of drugged interrogation, Law covered her body with a blanket and started walking away. However, he stopped when he was halfway across the room.

_I can't leave her here alone._ He thought with a grimace at the possibility of having another round of that infernal screaming from her when she discovered that she had been strapped in an place that reminded her so much of the place of her torture thirteen years ago.

He had no idea where else to put the girl except in the infirmary. The submarine had no empty rooms, most of them were occupied by his crew and they were all males. The Captain of the Heart Pirates crossed his arms and stared clinically at the blanketed body of Miss Nagisa as he considered his options. The only sensible choice would be to put her in his quarter, so that he could observe her closely. Her behavioural patterns intrigued him immensely in clinical terms, not to mention that he wanted to get the first chance of proper interrogation as soon as possible.

With a sigh, Law opened the door and told the first person he saw to get him a long-chained cuff and to bring said item to his quarter. That done, Law unstrapped the girl from the examination table and carried her bridal style in her half-naked glory to his personal quarter—which was just next to the infirmary. There was a connecting door between his quarter and the infirmary for his easy access.

His room was slightly bigger than the rooms of the other crews, but the difference wasn't great. His room was just enough to accommodate a bed, a desk, and two shelves of books with various titles on them. He also stored his most precious ingredients in his personal room. His nodachi stood proudly on the sword stand he had near his desk table.

Once inside his room, he dumped the girl to his bed and with an afterthought covered her half-naked body with the blanket. When the crewmember from earlier came with the cuff, he told him to scarper and go back to his chores without even allowing him a chance to ask what it was for or to get a good look at what was lying on his bed. Law then hand-cuffed the girl to the leg of the bed, with the chain long enough to allow her some freedom of movements once she was awake.

When he was done with the whole arrangements, Law went out of the room while taking his nodachi with him. He was the captain and the doctor of the crew; he had other things to attend before he could go back to his clinical observation in this interesting 'specimen'. However, if Sam's account of the girl having interest in his nodachi was correct, then it would be risky to leave the nodachi behind with only her in the room.

Law closed the door behind him with a soft, almost inaudible click. A few hours later, a pair of turquoise eyes fluttered open.

* * *

><p><em>"I work for the Revolutionaries Army. Since I have a connection with them, I wish to let them get away from here."<em>

_"I apologise for my abrupt manner earlier. Can I talk to you for a moment? I don't have much time left. Straw Hat should be in the direction where I send him flying away to."_

The first thing that Rayleigh did when Bartholomew Kuma had departed was to run back into Shakky's bar and grabbed a map. He spread the map and began tracing the direction that Bartholomew Kuma had indicated to him. The line that he drew on the map ended up in the Amazon Lily; home of the Kuja. Rayleigh raised an eyebrow; why would Bartholomew Kuma send Luffy there? Boa Hancock was known to hate men, so wouldn't he be in danger if he was sent there?

"So what did he tell you?" Shakky's soft voice broke him from his train of thoughts.

"Ah. He came to tell me where he had sent Luffy-kun away earlier. If I follow his direction correctly, then Luffy-kun will land on the Amazon Lily."

"Ah, isn't that Hancock's and her sisters' home island?" Shakky smiled slightly at the memory of the Kuja sisters.

"Yes. But why would he send him there, of all places?" Rayleigh wondered out loud as he turned to face Shakky. However, his eyes caught something that was out of place inside the bar.

"Shakky. Whose bag is that?" Why hadn't he noticed that bag before?

"Oh, this drawstring bag? It belongs to a guest, but she had forgotten it here and couldn't come back to retrieve it before she got kidnapped by a group of pirates." Shakky sighed and shook her head.

"Kidnapped?" Rayleigh raised an eyebrow. "Victims of kidnapping in this archipelago usually end up in the Human Auction House."

"Oh, I don't think she'll end up in the Human Auction House. After all, the one who kidnapped her was 'Surgeon of Death' Trafalgar Law of the Heart Pirates. I don't think they have a hobby of selling humans."

"Trafalgar Law? Ah, I saw him at the Human Auction House. His crew isn't half-bad; they took a blast of my Conqueror's Haki just fine. And his Devil Fruit power is interestingly peculiar, to say the least." Rayleigh laughed as he remembered the spectacle when the three rookie captains got out and ganged up on the Marines surrounding the Human Auction House in Groove 1. It was quite a sight to behold.

"I just hope that her mental health will be alright, seeing how she hates doctors with passion." Shakky chuckled. "I'd say that she had a very bad experience with doctors and surgeons before, when she was little. Perhaps it's a trauma."

"Hmm…." Rayleigh did a double-take at the drawstring bag. "She's from Wano Country, I take it?"

"Yes. This is her first time ever out of the New World."

"I see. Well, since she's a New World native, I suppose she won't have too much problems dealing with Trafalgar Law, then." Rayleigh shrugged. New World natives naturally had very strong survival instincts, from what he knew from his past adventures with Roger and from his solo trip after the disbandment of the Roger Pirates.

"So you don't think that these rookies have what it takes to conquer the New World?" Shakky asked curiously.

"I don't know, since I haven't seen them in their full power." Rayleigh stood up and went to look at the bounty posters of the Supernova that Shakky had put up on the wall of the bar. "I have to admit that their bounty numbers are quite impressive for rookies, though."

"I agree." Shakky nodded knowingly.

"But," Rayleigh grinned, "the sea of the New World is perilous. It's unlike the sea here in

'Paradise' Grand Line."

"Certainly so." Shakky just had to smile as well. "After all, the real threats of the New World are not the erratic weathers or the harsh environment or the vicious Sea Kings."

"Yes." Rayleigh then gave a sigh and closed his eyes. "Those witches make it their duty to attack pirates, and the ruthless ones go for total obliteration."

* * *

><p>The singing of the blade as he drew it from its sheath was piercingly sharp and clear. The blade was well-maintained to the point that it could act as a mirror. Law turned the blade in his hand, inspecting it in contemplation. He knew for a fact that the blade sang differently when the old man was the one who drew it. There was this tone of deadly gracefulness when the old man did draw the long sword. When Law was younger, he would admire it to no end; now he was rather jealous of the old man. How could he pull off such effect, and why could Law not? What was it that he lacked?<p>

Law stood in the middle of the training room with his nodachi unsheathed. He stared at his face that was reflected on the sharp blade of the sword. While he was decent with swords, Law wasn't so conceited that he thought himself as the best. No, he knew that he wasn't the best swordsman in the world. He wasn't even at the level of that Roronoa Zoro of the Straw Hats. He knew his limits, but he made up for it.

_"Well, this is strange. You aren't so good with normal swords, but you're better with longer swords like nodachi? You're an odd one, boy."_

The old man had said so himself. Of course Law had been amused by it, and certainly didn't mind being strange. It gave him a unique edge. At that time Law had wanted this particular nodachi for himself, claiming that he was better with longer sword anyway. The stubborn old man wouldn't let him even touch the nodachi, and instead he had forged another standard nodachi that quality-wise was nowhere near this one that he was holding at the moment.

_"Stop calling her 'that nodachi', boy. She has a name you know."_

_"You even give it a female gender? You perverted old man."_

_"Watch your mouth, boy! Her name is 'Ren'! Remember that! Now, on with your training!"_

_"AAAAARGH!"_

"Ren." Law called out at his sword, and all was silent.

He remembered the other day when the old man drew the sword and called her name, Law thought he heard a faint humming coming from the sword.

_"Hm? You heard a humming? Oh, that'll be Ren talking."_

_"A sword talking?"_

_"Law, you'd better learn how to drop that sceptical expression from your face or one of these days you're going to get yourself into big trouble with that. Anyway, yes. If you have a bond strong enough with a sword, you'll be able to hear its voices."_

_"Is that a common knowledge or is it just your bladesmith philosophy talking again?"_

_"Yehahaha! You got me, boy. I don't know about other swordsman, but I believe in it. At least, I believe in Ren."_

Law swung the nodachi a few times, limning perfects arcs across the air. Sometimes he would wonder whether the ability to use Ren in conjunction with his Devil Fruit power was due to the nature of his Devil Fruit or due to the sword's own capability. Often times Law couldn't help but to feel that Ren wasn't just any ordinary nodachi. Yes the old man once told him that the sword was his masterpiece, but was it more than that?

Law looked at the clock and saw that it was already about half a day since he left that Nagisa girl in his personal room. Perhaps he ought to check on her. It would be good if she was already lucid and calm enough to proceed with their 'interview'. Sheathing the nodachi and resting it on his shoulder, Law walked out of the training room and towards his personal room.

"Captain!"

"Bepo." Law looked at the polar bear but he didn't stop in his strides.

"Captain, dinner's ready!" The bear said, while he was already salivating at the prospect of food.

"In a minute. I'm going to check on our guest first." Law paused, and added, "Tell Sam to prepare a helping for the girl as well."

"Okay, Captain!" With that, Bepo scurried to the direction of the Mess Hall.

Law continued on his walk towards his room. When he reached the door, and without bother to knock on the door—it was his room, after all—Law reached out and turned the handle.

Imagine how surprised he was when he found his door unlocked.

* * *

><p><em>Oh, dear Trinity in the New World. How did I end up here?<em>

Nagisa promptly cursed in her native language; with vocabularies that would make Buddha's ears bled. When she woke up, she was in a room that was so neat, tidy, clean, and—she shivered at the mere thought of the word—sterile that she thought the owner of the room was a neat-freak psycho. She looked around and saw some bottles with Trinity-knew-what-were- written-there labels on them, her instincts straight away screamed at her to get the hell away from that place.

Problem was: One, she was half-naked. Two, she was hand-cuffed. She was flippin'_ hand- cuffed_, Trinity-dammit!

While she had plunged into instant panic attack for a few seconds, she quickly berated herself for almost going caput—after all, she had been in this kind of situations before due to her line of duty back then before she took indefinite leave (without permission) to 'Paradise' Grand Line. Inhaling and exhaling deeply a few times, Nagisa assessed the situations once again with calmer head. She did a double-take at the room she was confined in. The room didn't seem to speak of any threats to her. It seemed like a normal bedroom, with wardrobe—great, she could steal some clothes from there—shelves of book, bed, and study desk…

_Study desk!_ Nagisa mentally screamed in joy as she jumped to her feet and forthwith charged at the innocent study desk. She looked through the container for stationery, and finally managed to find some clips. She bent them and then used them to lock-pick the handcuff. It was a piece of cake, really. The handcuff was pathetic; she had been trained with locks way more advanced than this one. This one was practically ancient.

Once she was free from her bond—grossly kinky as it sounded—Nagisa proceeded to attack the equally innocent wardrobe. She rifled through the contents of the wardrobe without leaving too much traces e.g. obvious wrinkles and such. At the same time, she observed the type of clothes stored in there to get a gist of the personality of the owner of the room.

Judging from the clothes, the man—yeah it sure as hell would be a male—would be quite lanky, with taste for casual, practical clothes. Cross-examined with the shelves of books in the room, the man would be an intelligent one, if not bordering book-worm. However, he wasn't such a nerd if the decent fashion taste as displayed by the clothes was anything to go by. Interestingly, most of the clothes had this symbol on them; a creepy smiley with spikes on the out…side…

Wait. She had seen this creepy smiley before. On a larger scale. On the body of a ship. No, on a submarine. A freaking yellow submarine.

…

_Holy Sea Kings, Mother of Pearls! I'm in the submarine of the Heart Pirates!_

It took all she had not to scream the blessed air out of her lungs. She quickly jumped back to the bed and curled into a ball armadillo-style on the bed. Come to think of it, the room was too generous for a crewmember's room, so this room had to be the captain's room. Which meant it was Trafalgar's Law's; which meant it belonged to that blasted 'Surgeon of Death'.

_Gawd dammiiiiiittt…_ Nagisa wailed inwardly, crying some imaginary rivers.

Then, it all came back to her. The fight in the harbour in Sabaody Archipelago. The Marines. The bizarre whatchamacallit Devil Fruit Power. The 'Surgeon of Death'. The nodachi.

Wait. The _nodachi_. Nagisa uncurled her body and sat up straight on the bed. Since I'm already here, why don't I just investigate that nodachi. It looks too familiar to be just some other random nodachi. Yeah, that's right. Sounds like a plan. Now, how do I go about doing that…

Nagisa quickly picked the smallest hoodie—for the love of Trinity, he had tons of hoodie in there—for her to put on. She couldn't use any of the jeans and pants there because they were just too long for her short legs, even if she was to roll the legs they would still touch the floor. As last resort, she shredded the blanket she had been using and made make-shift short skirt with it. She then began her operation 'grope the room inside and out, up and down, left and right' to find anything that she could use for her self-proclaimed self-imposed new mission.

After figuratively throwing the room upside down, she still couldn't find the said nodachi but had found some evidence to back up her theory about the room being the captain's. The sword stand was the ultimate evidence and the complete giveaway. She even found the logbook, but was too lazy and too much in the I-don't-give-a-SeaKing's-shit-about-their- journey mode, and so she didn't bother reading it. Wait, on second thought perhaps she could just smuggle it out and perhaps she could find something noteworthy in there. Yeap. Also, she found a few scalpels hidden all over the room—gawd, psychotic much?—and so she took them with her.

When she decided that she had enough preparations—which she considered very little and insufficient but she couldn't get any more than that, she was already lucky that she could get her hands on some scalpels—Nagisa went to the door and tested it out. As expected, it was locked. Well, that wasn't too much a problem for her. Nagisa went to the study desk and fetched more clips. She bent them into another shape from the one she used to lock-pick her handcuff and used it on the door.

*click*

_Alright!_ Nagisa cheered inwardly as the lock clicked open.

The New World native pressed one of her ear to the metal door and listened intently. It sounded quiet enough outside, so it had to be safe for her to go out. Gingerly Nagisa turned the door knob and pushed open the door. She was greeted by empty corridor. She quickly slipped out of the room and closed the door behind her as softly as she could without even a soft click. She looked to her left and right. Which way should she go?

*clank clank clank*

Nagisa's body stiffened as she heard those soft, echoing footsteps. It sounded distant, but she knew that it was coming to her direction. Following logic, Nagisa took off in the opposite direction of the source of the footsteps. With light footsteps that produced no sounds at all, Nagis fled the scene.

* * *

><p>"'Red-hair'! You bastard! What do you think you're doin', ye asshole?" A gigantic muscular man shouted angrily from the deck of his ship.<p>

"Ah, hello there, Kaidou. It's been a while. Such a nice coincidence for us to meet here." Shanks greeted his fellow Yonkou with cheery face as he stood proudly on his own deck.

"Don't gimme that bullshit! Us Yonkou ain't just meet by a goddamn coincidence. What're ye up to now?" Kaidou continued shouting, very much cross that his plan was foiled by that red-haired bastard.

"I can ask you the same thing."

As Kaidou and Shanks kept bickering pointlessly—which was just fine for Shanks because that was the whole point of him intercepting the other Yonkou; i.e. to buy time for the Whitebeard to cross to the 'Paradise' Grand Line as soon as possible without unnecessary interceptions—Benn Beckman took several steps back until he was standing just next to the main mast of the ship. Hidden behind the thick main mast was Meifeng; who was leaning against the mast with her arms crossed and smoking from a small oriental ceramic pipe. She exhaled a thin fragranced smoke before she turned to Benn.

"He knows what he's doing, huh?" She drawled. "And damn good at it, I dare say."

"He would've gone to save Ace himself if not for his thoughtful decision of giving Whitebeard the honour of it. After all, Ace is one of Whitebeard's sons." Benn said with low voice.

"And since Ace is Luffy's older brother, the idiot here is willing to go as far as confronting another Yonkou." Meifeng took a drag and exhaled again. "Really, I don't get you pirates. I don't understand why you and the Whitebeards considered each other enemies. You guys are pretty much the same type of pirates, after all."

"We have too many different principals, I suppose?" Benn said, but Meifeng could tell that he didn't give much thought to it.

"Nonsense." Meifeng snorted. "Whatever. I don't care either. But for Kaidou, I understand why none of you tolerate him at all. He's the real asshole." Meifeng's eyes narrowed into dangerous slits and her jade green eyes burned with hateful contempt. "He killed so many of my sisters."

"Is that the reason why you're willing to help us? To spite him?" Benn asked curiously. "I

thought the rules of your people prohibit you to help pirates?"

"Well, not exact—"

KABOOM!

"They are attacking!"

"All hands on the deck! Be ready for the battle!"

"Prepare the cannons!"

"Ah, there you go. The real battle starts now." Meifeng giggled sinisterly as she slid the ceramic pipe to her bun. She then began walking towards the cabin of the ship. "To answer your question: I'm not helping you in your battle. I'll only help you when you're done with the battle, and I'll make the wind favourable to you so that you can catch up and reach the 'Paradise' Grand Line as soon as possible."

"I thought so." Benn laughed as he shot one cannon that was coming too near to the ship to his liking. "So, see you after this battle?"

"Yeah. Later." Meifeng waved at him over her shoulder as she closed the cabin door behind her.

Benn stared at the cabin door for a while before he started moving to where his captain was standing. Kaidou's ship was nearing their ship, and pretty soon they would be having real all- out brawls. When Benn reached his captain's side, the latter had just sliced an incoming cannon with his sword.

"Oh? Where's Mei-chan?" Shanks asked with a quick sideways glance to his first mate.

"She went into the lower deck." Benn answered as he shot down a few more cannons.

"So she's really not joining the fun?"

"Captain, you know that witches aren't supposed to aid pirates in their battles. Give it up."

"I know, I know. I was just asking." Shanks gave a jovial laugh. "But they really do come in handy when they are on our side, no?"

Benn smirked at his captain. "_Only_ when they are on our side and only when they _favour_ us."

* * *

><p><em>As usual, I'll really appreciate some reviews =D<em>


	5. Turn of Tides

_**Disclaimer**: __One __Piece belongs to Eeichiro Oda-sensei and whatever else that have rights on it. This is for personal use and not for commercial use._

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 5<strong>

_**TURN OF TIDES**_

* * *

><p>"Sam, how's the food supply?"<p>

"It hasn't been pilfered, Cap'n. Still the same as last time I checked." Answered the chef of the Heart Pirates.

Trafalgar Law scowled at the news. It wasn't like he wanted the food supply to be stolen or anything, but it simply unnerved the "Surgeon of Death" that the Nagisa girl could survive two days without food—and today would be the third day. Since the time that Law had discovered the girl missing, he had ordered ALL of his crew to keep an eye on anything and to immediately 'fire at will' when they spotted the runaway girl; i.e. catch the girl alive in one way or another and bring her to him.

"Keep monitoring the food supply." Law said as he stepped out of the kitchen.

"Aye-aye, Cap'n!"

Law walked along the hallways of the submarine while silently fuming. He had been made a fool by a girl! First the girl had lock-picked the handcuff and his door, and then she had stolen his clothes and his logbook, and she was nowhere to be seen in his own submarine. She had to be somewhere in the submarine because they hadn't docked on a single island since the incident in Sabaody Archipelago. As a matter of fact, they were just sailing in a circle around the vicinity of the archipelago so that they could go back to the archipelago as soon as possible when things had calmed down. Now with the girl on loose, they couldn't afford to dock at all, lest the girl slipped away unnoticed when nobody was looking.

Even worse, the girl was now armed. Law had almost gone apoplectic when he discovered that almost all of his scalpels that he had stored in his room had gone missing. When handled by a knowing hand, scalpels could be absolutely deadly weapons. He had announced the situation to the crew, and it didn't help that the news had put his crew on edge for the entire three days two nights.

There were actually times when Law thought he sensed _very faint_ presence of the girl with his Colour of Observation Haki, but he had promptly dismissed it as just his imagination after he had physically checked the surrounding and found nothing. True that his master had taught him the basic of Haki, but he didn't get the chance to practice it so much due to some, well, unfortunate incident. Law knew that his Colour of Observation Haki was still weak and juvenile, so he couldn't depend too much on it yet.

"Captain!"

"Bepo. No sighting yet?"

"Not at all, Captain…I'm sorry."

"Not your fault." Law waved a dismissive hand as he resumed his walking.

At one point of time, as desperate measure Law had actually turned Bepo into something akin to police dog. He had shoved the girl's clothes right under the bear's nose and ordered him to memorise the girl's scent and used that to track her down. Bepo had complied, but it turned out that it was impossible to detect the girl's true scent because of the overwhelming scent on the clothes themselves. The polar bear had claimed that he could only detect the smell of sea and grass, but those were most likely from the nature and not her scent per se. So there went the desperate measure to the trash bin.

It went without saying that Law had been both fascinated and irritated by the current situation. Fascinated because the girl could actually hide inside _his_ submarine without being discovered, and the vessel itself wasn't something big or spacious. Most of the space was taken up by machinery, after all. Irritated because it was getting hard to track down the girl and he needed to find her soon so that they could dock back to Sabaody once the time came. Besides, he didn't fancy having a rotting corpse inside his submarine; which would happen if the girl still refused to take food for fear of being discovered until she was famished to death.

Law stopped walking for a while, before he made a detour towards the infirmary. If anything, Law was 100% sure that the infirmary was the only place that the girl had not broken into at all. He didn't have to wonder about it to know why the infirmary was being left alone. The girl hated anything that had to do with doctors after all, infirmary included. One of the evidence was that her Seastone garments that he had incidentally stored inside the infirmary were still there, untouched at all.

Inside the infirmary, Law took out Nagisa's outfit; them being stored inside a canister of some sort to prevent Law from going weak in the knees upon contact with the Seastone fabric, and pondered over it. This was the first time he knew that Seastone could be turned into fabrics. In that light, this garment had to be very rare, and this had to be important for the girl. Besides, he had also discovered after his inspection of her weapons—a suspicion that arose after his disastrous discovery of the Seastone garment—that those black blades were made of Seastone as well. There had to some explanation about this, and those weapons looked like they had been custom-made; and so was the Seastone garment though it looked like a typical spandex suit.

Well, he could try this method that he had just thought of. It was almost like a gambling, but he supposed that it would be worth it. With the canister containing Nagisa's clothes in his arms, Law exited the infirmary and walked towards the Control Room of the Submarine.

* * *

><p>Not only that she was starving physically, but she was mentally and emotionally burdened as well. Oh, Trinity damned all the unreliable good-for-nothing gods up there, Nagisa couldn't take it anymore! She felt like pulling at her hair in despair and frustration, but she couldn't do that in case some of her hair fell and became evidence of her presence. And Trinity knew what that psycho could do with mere strands of hair.<p>

_What stars of disaster was I born under? Oh, woe me…_Nagisa wailed inwardly as she covered her face with her hands.

*grrrowl*

_And my stomach is murdering me…_

For three days and two nights she hadn't eaten or drunk anything, and she was already swearing that she could gobble down the first Sea King that she saw. Well, to be honest this wasn't the worst that she had ever endured before; considering that she had been starved almost to death when she had been a lab rat before. Still, she wouldn't want to deprive her poor stomach if she could help it.

Besides, she was coming short of hiding spots as the pirates were becoming more active in combing the whole submarine in search of her. In the first place, the submarine wasn't so big and it was already cramped with all the crew. It was a miracle that she had been able to sneak her way past many of those pirates and even past Law's ever-oh-so-keen eyes. There were times that Nagisa thought he had caught her, but after some clever avoiding tricks she managed to stay clear. It seemed that the psycho knew Haki, but he just sucked at it.

_Most probably because of lack of training. _Nagisa thought in passing. _I don't think he's the type who does things half-assed. Why then?_

*ding dong*

**[Good evening, Miss Nagisa.]**

The said girl stiffened and her skin blanched in the instant she heard the Captain Pscyho's voice calling her name. Wait a bleeping second—how did he find out about her name?

**[I know you are somewhere in this submarine. Good job in avoiding my crew, Miss. That is certainly impressive.]**

Veins popped on Nagisa's temple. Oh, she could hear his mocking tone as tangible as the metal wall next to her, even when his voice was rather crackling due to it being transmitted by the speakers installed inside the submarine.

**[As much as I'm enjoying this game, I think it's about time we end this. How about we do it this way? Right now the submarine is surfacing, if you can feel it. Your clothes are with me, as you should remember, and I assume that they are of quite some significance to you.]**

_How the hell did he find out about that? Freaking psycho much? _Nagisa shuddered.

**[What will happen is that my crew and I will be waiting outside on the deck of the submarine, with your clothes in my hands. I know for a fact that right now you are only dressed in one piece hoodie.]**

There were some background noises that sounded suspiciously like some men getting choked in shock and some incoherent squealing. Nagisa grimaced at this embarrassing announcement. The sadistic dude just had to announce to the whole world that she wasn't wearing any pants. She only had a freaking make-shift skirt, after all.

**[Also, you haven't had any food and drink for three days straight. I suppose you should be starving right now.]**

Her stomach decided to growl uninhibitedly at the mention of food. Nagisa slapped her traitorous stomach in embarrassment and irritation, notwithstanding the lack of audience around her.

**[So I suggest that we call a truce. Come out to the deck, and we will talk about it. I may return you your clothes if things go well.]**

_So he's not promising that he's going to return my clothes. Conniving bastard, you think I'm an idiot to not notice that?_ Nagisa scowled.

**[Well then, I'll be waiting on the deck. See you there, Miss Nagisa.]**

There were more crackling noises before finally the announcement ended and everything went into utter silence. The submarine had stopped going up and it was bobbing up and down gently, telling Nagisa that they were already on the surface of ocean. Nagisa started biting her nails as she thought over the proposal.

No matter how she looked at it, if she followed it down to the last letter it would only end up with her complying with the Captain Psycho's wishes. Even if she got her clothes back by some celestial miracles, Trafalgar Law didn't mention anything about her weapons. She couldn't leave behind her weapons either; they were custom-made just for her. She wouldn't be able to find them anywhere else. Well, technically she could go back to the New World to order a new set for her, but she would get murdered first before she could even order for it. Meifeng should have picked up about her disappearance from the New World and the older girl would have gone apoplectic by now. There was no way in hell that Nagisa could go back to the New World before taking care of this shitty mess.

…_Well, no pains no gains. I'll just go and observe the situation first. _

Nagisa sneaked out from her hiding spot to the corridor of the submarine. It was completely deserted, and Nagisa suspected that the whole crew was waiting on the deck, on stand-by to jump at her at Captain Psycho's order. Nagisa clucked her tongue. She was more than a decent fighter in the New World, but even she wasn't sure if she could survive being ganged up by a whole pirate crew when she was as famished as she was right now. Not to mention that there was Captain Psycho and his thingamajig Devil Fruit power. Nagisa dashed noiselessly to the direction of the main entrance of the submarine while going through the possibilities of the situations that awaited her beyond the main door.

Once the main door was within sight, Nagisa shifted to 'stealth' mode as she literally crept on the floor as she approached the metal door. She peeked at the small circular window to observe the situation outside. True enough, she saw Trafalgar Law standing at the end of the deck, leaning against the metal railing with his nodachi resting against his shoulder and a canister beside his feet. Nagisa had to assume that the canister contained her clothes, but she couldn't jump into conclusions yet. That was a taboo in her line of work, and it had been an ingrained habit in her mind and body. Taking her eyes away from Captain Psycho and the items he had with him, Nagisa could see that all of the Heart Pirates crew were on the deck; all standing and; to Nagisa's eyes, were prepared for a battle of some sort with her. What a pain in the neck.

Nagisa crouched on the floor and took out the scalpels that she had stolen from Captain Psycho's room. The thing that weighted down on her mind the most was the freak's Devil Fruit power. She wouldn't be having too much problems with most of the crew since her speed and agility were still far superior than them—starved or not—if her escaping from five of them in Sabaody was anything to go by. Now, for the Devil Fruit power…

_He makes that weird blue sphere with his hands that makes up the effect-area for his ability. I've only seen him teleporting me from distance, switching my position with one of his men. He told one of his men to cover for him when he was controlling that blue sphere thingamajig, which means he has to concentrate when doing things with his Devil Fruit power. So he hasn't fully mastered it. Then it's safe to assume for now that the things he can meddle with inside the blue sphere have to be within his eyesight…_ Nagisa began analysing the Devil Fruit power.

In the New World, Nagisa had seen a lot of people with Devil Fruit power and she had taken her time studying them. There were patterns about Devil Fruit power, and she noticed that there were certain limitations with their abilities. She could guess that Captain Psycho's Devil Fruit power was the Paramecia type, so she had to count herself lucky (for once, thank Trinity) that the freak wasn't a Logia. If that was the case, then she was royally screwed without her Seastone weapons and garments.

A slight shudder in the submarine pulled Nagisa from her train of thoughts. The vibration had been very slight, so faint that most people would thought it was from the swaying of the waves but Nagisa knew better than that. She practically grew up on oceans, so she knew that the vibration had been caused by something moving around the submarine. Nagisa grinned brightly at herself.

For once, Lady Luck was _really _on her side.

Nagisa took out the scalpels and held them in a fanning fashion with one hand, while the other hand was rested on the handle of the door. She bent her knees as she prepared herself for a swift action that would soon come when the distractions had surfaced from the ocean.

So she waited.

And waited.

"AAAARGH! A SEA KING! IT'S A SEA KING!"

_Now!_

* * *

><p>"Do you think she'll really come out?" Shachi asked his crewmate.<p>

"Who knows?" Penguin shrugged. "There's no telling what's going on in her head."

"She will come out." Law said firmly as he eyed the canister sitting near his legs. "In fact, she is already there behind the door."

"Really?"

Yes, Law now could sense her presence with his Colour of Observation Haki. He was right, he had correctly felt her presence in a few occasions before, but it would seem that she had eluded him before he could find her in her hiding spots. If that was the case, then she had sensed that he had noticed her presence with Haki. Was that her intuition or pure luck? Or sheer capabilities?

Law planned to wait patiently until the girl gave up and came out. She was bound to do that sooner or later. Several long minutes had passed and the crew was getting more restless, but still Law waited silently as he eyed the door with anticipation. His attention on the door was, unfortunately, broken when he heard violent splashing sounds of waves from behind him.

"AAAARGH! A SEA KING! IT'S A SEA KING!" Shachi screamed in terror as he spun around and jumped as far away as possible from the metal railing of the submarine.

"Tsk." Law clucked his tongue in annoyance. Why did a Sea King have to appear at such time? His crew could handle a Sea King—Shachi was just being the Drama Queen he was—but Law didn't want to waste time. He could handle the Sea King faster with his Devil Fruit power. "Stay back."

Law turned around and made his trademark gesture with his hand.

"**Room.**" He said, and a blue sphere promptly appeared and surrounded him and the Sea King.

That was the mistake he did.

Before he even had the time to say 'Shambles', his instincts told him to shift his footing. It would seem that he had been rather slow in following that particular instinct, because he in the next millisecond he felt a sharp cutting pain on one of his legs, near his ankle. The shock and pain got him weak on the knees, but before his knee even touched the wooden floor of his deck, something solid collided with his lower back from low angle.

"Captain!"

Law hit the metal railing as he lost his footing from the impact. The collision also made him let go of his hold on his nodachi_. _He clutched at the metal railing for support and was turning around to face his sudden attacker when he saw a blur flying past his face. He quickly turned his head to look at that blur, and was just in time to see a black-haired figure plunging into the sea below and disappearing among the waves.

The roar of the Sea King didn't faze Law at the slightest bit. Law didn't even bother moving from his spot as he saw the shadow of the Sea King looming over him. The sounds of Bepo's trademark kung-fu yells and his men's shouts were enough assurance that the Sea King was taken care of. He was too preoccupied with other things to care about a Sea King.

Not only that he had been outwitted by the same girl for the second time, that girl had also taken back her clothes and almost severed his Achilles tendon at the same time.

And stole his nodachi right under his nose.

* * *

><p>She felt like laughing hysterically. She couldn't believe that it would be <em>that<em> successful. After so many rotten lucks for the past days, she finally got her share of good luck!

_Hah! Take that, you blasted good-for-nothing-gods up there! Trinity bless me!_ Nagisa cheered as she climbed up one of the Yarukiman Mangrove's gigantic roots.

Yes, this morning she was finally back to Sabaody Archipelago. The only reason she had managed to reach Sabaody in less than one day was because she had ridden the ocean current that was flowing towards the archipelago, and because the Heart Pirates submarine had been going in circles not too far from the archipelago. Nagisa figured that they had intended to go back to the archipelago once the commotion with the Marines had died down in the island. She hadn't known what the main cause of the commotion was, but she wasn't interested. She simply hated the World Government and the Marines.

When Nagisa had been in the New World, swimming had always been her favourite sport. The water in the New World was way wilder and rougher than in 'Paradise' Grand Line, so she was having a relatively easy time swimming her way back to Sabaody Archipelago. It was also easier to read the direction of the ocean current in 'Paradise' Grand Line, so she could choose which currents to ride on.

Once she had a good footing on the land, Nagisa tried to shake the excess water off her body. She looked around and noted that she was in one of the lawless zones, if her memories of the archipelago divisions served her right. Another good fortune for her: Shakky's Rip-Off Bar was in one of groves in the lawless zone. She could take refuge at Shakky's place; she knew that the Heart Pirates would be hot on her heels; if not after her blood, particularly their captain. He seemed like the proud type who'd avenge his wounded pride; in the most downright-sadistic-even-the-Devil-would-cower-in-terror methods of torture, so he would definitely try to track her down.

Having decided that it was a decent plan as for the moment, Nagisa started walking towards the general direction of Shakky's bar. Oh, right. When Nagisa was riding the ocean current that was heading towards the archipelago, she had changed into her usual garment once more—who'd mind a girl changing in the middle of ocean, anyway? The Sea Kings? Pfft. Yeah, right. That aside, it felt so good to be back in familiar clothes, but she wasn't going to throw away Captain Psycho's hoodie yet. It might come in handy later.

During her walk towards Shakky's bar; noting the groves number on the Yarukiman trees as she went, Nagisa studied the nodachi she had stolen from Captain Psycho. Turning it around a few times and scrutinizing it from the hilt to the bottom of the scabbard, and even unsheathing and giving it some experimental swings, Nagisa finally came up with a rather unpleasant conclusion.

Notwithstanding the slight tweaking on the design of the hand guard of the nodachi—that furry white thing was originally not there—it indeed was the nodachi that her grandfather had forged decades ago; one that he had claimed to be his masterpiece.

But how in holy Trinity's names did it end up in Trafalgar Law's possession?

* * *

><p>"It's already the fourth day. Monkey-chan should have arrived in Amazon Lily by yesterday."<p>

"Yeah. I just hope he survives the women there."

"Oh, he will. Monkey-chan has quite the charm, after all."

"Well, I suppose—"

"SHAKKYYYYYYY!" The entrance door of Shakky's Rip-Off Bar was slammed open, and storming into the bar was a soaked-wet-from-head-to-toe girl in blue outfit.

"Ah. Welcome back, Nagisa-chan." Shakky greeted her calmly, although she was quite surprised to find her back after only four days. She guessed that she had been too accustomed to Rayleigh disappearing for months to no ends.

"Yes, I'm BACK, thank Trinity! Gawd dammit!"

Shakky couldn't help but to chuckle gleefully at the New World native's expression. She looked like she had just attained divine salvation just recently, despite her largely frazzled and beyond-messy appearance. Her large turquoise eyes were twinkling with profound, infinite relief as she flopped down to one of the stools and started demanding food like she could drop dead if she had no food inside her stomach soon enough.

"Oh? Who's this, Shakky?" Rayleigh inquired in amusement as he scrutinised the girl from head to toe. At one glance, he could discern that the girl came from the New World; more specifically the Wano Country.

"This is Nagisa-chan, the one who owns this bag." Shakky said as she took Nagisa's drawstring bag from underneath the counter and put it on the counter table. Nagisa promptly squealed in delight as she saw her long-missed bag and started hugging it like it was a long-lost friend; never minding the dripping seawater on her body.

"I see. You are from Wano Country in the New World, Nagisa-chan?"

"Uh…" The girl turned to Rayleigh and gave a distrusting look. "And you are?"

"Silvers Rayleigh, at your service." Rayleigh bowed his head in his gentlemanly gesture as he introduced himself, much to the girl's amusement.

"Oh, 'Dark King' Silvers Rayleigh? I finally get to meet you in person!" All wariness and distrust had instantly vaporised from the girl's turquoise eyes as she sat up straight in her seat and turned to fully face Rayleigh. "The former first mate of Gol D. Roger, right?"

"Yes. I'm surprised someone as young as you recognises my name."

At this, the girl scowled in annoyance.

"I'm eighteen this year." She muttered irritably.

"Really? Boy, you don't look that age! Ahahahaha!" Rayleigh laughed, and his eyes then drifted to the long sword that the girl had just put on the counter table. "Say, isn't that Trafalgar Law's sword?"

Yes, he would recognise that sword anywhere. The design was so unique that Rayleigh wouldn't be surprised if he was to be told that it was the only one of its kind. It seemed to be custom-made. For some reasons, however, even when he had seen that sword with Trafalgar Law in the Human Auction House, he had felt that he had seen that sword before, way before.

"Hm? No. This belongs to my family." The girl said airily.

"Really, now? I could've sworn that it looks identical like the one he has."

"Nagisa-chan, you didn't have that with you when you came here." Shakky said with a smile.

"I just found it. It was a lost family heirloom." Nagisa shrugged, as if it wasn't a big deal.

"Really, now? You found a lost family heirloom when you were travelling with Trafalgar Law?" Shakky inquired 'innocently' as she put a plate of food in front of the famished girl.

"I WASN'T TRAVELLING WITH HIM! HE BLOODY KIDNAPPED ME!" Nagisa yelled in unbridled indignation as she slammed the wooden table with her two hands. The table shook, and the plate of food went floating off the table for a moment before dropping down with a clatter.

"So it _is_ Trafalgar Law's sword." Rayleigh's grin broadened. Now this was interesting. "You stole it?"

"NO." The girl snapped at him. "I'm taking back what rightfully belongs to my family." She then began attacking her food with so much starving enthusiasm that all table-manners were forgotten and practically thrown out of the windows and swallowed by a Sea King.

"Ahahahaha! You have quite the guts, girl, for you to steal from a pirate! A Supernova, no less!"

"Were you listening to me?" Nagisa murmured with a scowl and with half-full mouth. "I should be the one questioning him where and how he got his hands on this nodachi_; _stolen or otherwise."

"So you didn't ask him before you took it?"

"Didn't have the chance. Was running away for my dear life." She answered curtly as she continued wolfing down the food. "Man, your cooking's awesome, Shakky!"

"Thank you, Nagisa-chan." Shakky said while leaning on her elbows on the counter table. "By the way, I think the 'Surgeon of Death' will be looking for you since you stole his sword, yes?"

"'Think so. That's why I'm gonna stay low and hide here for a while until the bastard gives up." Nagisa swallowed a huge lump of food, and then added ominously with low voice: "If the word 'give up' exists in his dictionary. Which I doubt it does."

"What are you going to do in the meantime, then?" Shakky asked as she took a drag.

"Do some bounty-hunting, I suppose. The lawless zone should be infested with some criminals who have some bounties on their heads. Once the jackass and his lackeys are here, I'll hole up myself here and never going out until I'm damn sure they've gone their merry way somewhere else. Oh, I can hide here, right, Shakky?" Nagisa looked up from her plate and gave Shakky a puppy-eye. "I won't be free-loading. I'll pay for the lodging and meals!"

"Sure thing, Nagisa-chan."

"Great! You're a life-saver, Shakky!" Nagisa then continued eating with gusto.

"What if you run into him by accidents while doing bounty-hunting?" Rayleigh asked as he stroked his white beards. The girl's case was interesting, to say the least. She actually antagonized a pirate crew purposefully.

The girl choked on her food and had to hit her chest a few times so that the food stuck on her throat could go down. When she finally swallowed a suspiciously large chunk of food, she groaned sincerely and gave Rayleigh a pleading look.

"Rayleigh-san, please don't jinx my luck. My strokes of good luck have been returning to me for the last few hours and I wish that to remain as my status quo, for indefinite time if I can ask for it."

The 'Dark King' laughed jovially at the girl's choice of words. When he then asked her of what had happened to her previously, Nagisa began story-telling her disaster-ridden, perilously plagued-by-bad-luck journey from her country in the New World to Sabaody Archipelago and until her escape from the Heart Pirates. Rayleigh listened to her tale without interrupting at all, and so did Shakky. When she was done, Rayleigh couldn't help but to laugh his heads off again. He never knew that someone could have such very _very_ bad lucks in rows. The girl might as well be the most unlucky person he had ever encountered in his lifetime.

"So which island in Wano Country do you come from?" Rayleigh asked when he was done laughing. The girl didn't seem to take offense in him laughing as her miserable strokes of bad lucks—as if she was already used to people laughing as her misfortunes.

"Kaigara Island. Ever heard of that?"

"Oh, I've been there before! It's a really beautiful place."

"Really? Wow! How come nobody told me that the Pirate King and his crew have ever docked in our island before? Damn!" Nagisa snipped her fingers in annoyance.

"Oh, no. We didn't dock there. I went there during my solo journey, after the Roger Pirates were disbanded." Rayleigh chuckled.

"Ceh. No wonder. So do you know anyone from there, then?"

"Well, let's see…" Rayleigh looked up to the ceiling and stroked his beards as he tried to recall the faces of the people he had encountered in his pirating days more than two decades ago. "I remember Isora from there…"

Nagisa went silent and her jaws figuratively dropped to the wooden floor below her.

"Holy Sea Kings!" The New World native suddenly squealed in joy. "That's my freaking grandpa! You know that old man?"

"Ohoho! You are Isora's granddaughter? Oh my! What a surprise!" Rayleigh barked some amused laughter as he studied the girl more closely. "Now that you mention it, you look like his daughter when she was about your age. And no wonder I seemed to recognise that sword before."

"You even know my mom? Awesome! Oh, but, but! Do you know that Gramps went out of the New World a few years ago? He said he wanted to spend his old age somewhere peaceful; probably one of the Four Blues, so do you have any idea where he might have ended up in? This is the reason why I come here. I'm looking for him. I miss him too much!" The girl turned to the former pirate with hopeful eyes.

"Well…" Rayleigh's eyes drifted to the nodachi that was lying innocently on the table. He could say that he pretty much had a sensible guess of where Nagisa's grandfather had gone to, but he didn't know whether it was wise of him to tell her that now, seeing that the girl seemed to be still upset with Trafalgar Law.

"Oh, by the way, Shakky." Nagisa turned to Shakky; who had gone back to reading her newspaper. "What happened the other day in here? Why were there lots of Marines here?"

"Oh. That day." Shakky chuckled. "It seems that Monkey-chan has attacked a Tenryuubito in a Human Auction House."

"Alright! Trinity bless him! Then, then?" Nagisa leaned forward over the counter as she waited in eager anticipation for more stories about the demise of that ever-repulsive Tenryuubito.

"Well, of course the Marines come here to arrest them and the other pirates; more specifically the other Supernovas. An Admiral came, accompanied by some Pacifista."

"Pacifista?"

"They are cyborg weapons that are being developed by the Marines."

"They have such things now? Eew." The girl rolled her eyes in exasperation. "Then, then?"

As Nagisa listened to Shakky's stories about the Straw Hats and about the unprecedented help from Bartholomew Kuma of the Shichibukai, Rayleigh took his time studying the girl again. Isora had been his good friend; the man had saved him when he had a shipwreck near the shore of the island. Kaigara Island was famous for their shell-themed structures, and hence the name. However, the name also referred to the fact that there were so many huge corals near the shores that it was close to impossible for a ship to dock at the shores, with the exception of the locals who knew the area so much they had memorised the location and sizes of every single corals. Those corals had been the cause of his shipwreck; he remembered cussing at those innocent-but-not-so-guiltless corals.

He didn't know if Nagisa was aware of Isora's insane attachment with his nodachi or not. When he had first docked in Kaigara Island, Nagisa had yet to be born and even her mother had been still a young girl. The nodachi hadn't been forged at that time. They had met again when Isora had come to Sabaody Archipelago, in his journey to one of the Four Blues. Isora had proudly showed off the nodachi to Rayleigh, and the former had told him the story of his granddaughter; the tragic story that had prompted the forging of the nodachi. He remembered the man saying that he would never be apart from his nodachi until death did them apart; as cheesy and cliché as it might sound, because of the promise that he had made with his granddaughter. If that nodachi was really Isora's—despite the slight difference in the design of the hand guard—and it was really in Trafalgar Law's possession at the moment, then it could only mean one thing:

Isora was dead.

Then, one question arose: did Trafalgar Law kill him?

* * *

><p>Law was beyond livid. Usually, when he was outsmarted by someone, he would get interested and even entertained, thinking that he finally managed to find someone worthy of his time and brains to mess around with. It was like a challenge to see whether he could outwit that person back, stretching the capability of his intelligence and cunningness. However, this was a whole different case.<p>

Not when his nodachi had been stolen from him right under his nose.

Oh, he didn't mind the tear on his Achilles tendon. In the first place, it wasn't even close to a tear. It was a simple nick on the flesh, rather deep but nothing serious. It could be easily fixed; he wasn't the 'Surgeon of Death' for nothing. He was a doctor-of-all-trades, if such term existed. The problem was the nodachi. Nobody survived after _attempting_ to steal Ren, much less those who actually succeeded in stealing it; though so far there had been only but one person who had managed to do that. Law swore that he was going to make the girl suffer in the most excruciating manner, and he would make sure to relive whatever horrendous experience she ever had when she had been a lab rat.

Law sat in the Control Room of the submarine, eyes locked on the screen that was showing that they were so near the harbour of Sabaody Archipelago.

"_Set course to Sabaody!" He barked that order at his men a few minutes after he had patched up his nicked ankle, and a few hours after the men had cleaned up the mess caused from the fight with the Sea King. The beast's meat ended up in their stomach for that dinner, of course._

"_Does she even survive the sea?" Penguin muttered to nobody in particular as he scurried away to carry out the orders from his not-so-in-good-mood Captain—he had never seen his captain this pissed off before._

"_She does." The Captain of the Heart Pirates responded acidly. _

While Law didn't have the solid evidence or proof to substantiate this statement, he simply knew that the girl had survived and had gone back to Sabaody Archipelago. Called it gut instincts or whatever, he didn't care. All he wanted now was to extract revenge on that girl.

"Captain, what are we gonna do when we reach Sabaody?" Bepo asked innocently.

"Of course we'll be after that girl, Bepo. What else?" Penguin responded to the talking bear with a roll of his eyes.

"And when we find her, there'll be bloodbath." Shachi mumbled in low voice; the words intended only to Penguin who stood by his side but Law still could hear them faintly.

Everyone in the crew; with the exception of Jean Bart since he was a new member, knew that a pissed off Law was equal to a homicidal Law, which meant there would be tortures and screams and gores that circulated around the person who had pissed him off. Law recalled the one time when a Marine had pissed him off, and he had ended up in a pile of innards and gore. Simply put, Law had cut him apart and played mix-and-match with his organs. It was a rather interesting experimentation, to say the least.

"Captain, is that sword a very important item to you?" Penguin dared himself to ask him.

And a pissed off Law was usually short of manners and words—e.g. decency to reply to people's questions.

"Captain has had it with him since before he started off as a pirate." Bepo had to answer for him. "It was given to him from his late master."

"By 'late', you mean…"

"He's dead. Heart failure. The technology in my hometown wasn't advanced enough to save him, and stupid old man wouldn't let me go in search for the technology." Law answered curtly, surprising all of his crew that were present there.

Law had never discussed about his past to any of his crew. Bepo was the only one who knew something about it, since he was Law's first mate after all. Even the others didn't really know how Bepo and Law had met. Everyone had been so amazed by the fact that he was a talking bipedal polar bear that they didn't question anything else. Law was also naturally secretive of his pasts and he kept them to himself, unless it was something general that didn't pertain to specific parts of his pasts. It wasn't like he was distant to his crewmates. He didn't mind sharing about his ideologies, philosophies, thoughts and the likes, but just not his past.

Yes. Ren had been given to him when the old man was at his death's door. During his apprenticeship time, Law had always looked at the sword when it was hung on the wall, thinking of the time when he could use it for real. The old man had never so much as let him touch the nodachi except for that first time.

"Was he the one who taught you swordsmanship and martial arts, Captain?"

"Yes."

"He taught me martial arts, too." Bepo chirped.

"YOU also? But how—"

"Bepo."

It was only one word and the voice hadn't been harsh, but there was such thick commanding tone in it that the Control Room fell into pin-drop silence. The beeping sound of the submarine control engine became deafening, and all eyes were fixed on the Captain of the Heart Pirates.

"I'm sorry…" Bepo hung his head low. None of his crewmate bothered to give the usual 'how weak!' comment, because this time round he really had the reason to be sorry. He had breached a taboo subject.

Law said nothing more and continued to stare at the screen on the wall of the Control Room. Everyone else resumed their own activities, but the awkwardness hung in the room like dark clouds. After a while, Law stood up from his seat and exited the Control Room.

* * *

><p>After the Captain left the Control Room, there were breaths of relief a few seconds after the door had been closed behind him. They then broke into the usual discussion about the speculation of the captain's past. None of them bothered to ask Bepo about it since they knew the bear wouldn't speak a word about it. The slip from earlier was just pure fluke. Notwithstanding the bear's tendency to say 'sorry' all the time for no apparent reasons, they knew that his loyalty to Trafalgar Law was unparalleled among the Heart Pirates. They only knew that Bepo had been with the captain the longest among them; he was the First Mate, after all.<p>

Bepo couldn't help but to wonder if the other crewmembers noticed Law's fingers twitching when he exited the room or not. Law didn't carry the long sword all the time; when in the submarine he tended to put it in his private room. When that happened, his fingers never twitched. Law's fingers never twitched before—not even when he was performing the most dangerous and precarious surgery—unless it was out of utter annoyance. However, Bepo doubted that this time it was caused by annoyance as well.

"Hey, Bepo! Where are you going?" Shachi called out to him.

"To see the Captain." He answered plainly as he was about to close the Control Room door.

"What? He's in a very bad mood, and you were the cause. You sure you want to see him?"

The bear only nodded.

"Really?" Shachi gave him one sceptical expression, and then shrugged noncommittally. "Oh, well. Fine. Your business, pal."

Deciding that it was his cue to take his leave, Bepo closed the door with a soft click and proceeded to trot to where he knew his Captain would be: the Captain's quarter. Once he was there, Bepo politely knocked on the door softly four times—the others would knock three times, so Bepo decided to knock four times to differentiate himself from the others. And Law noticed this. He had been amused by this antic but hadn't gone against it, so Bepo figured that he could stick with it.

"Come in, Bepo." Law responded immediately, seemingly out of habit.

With awkward agility that only a bipedal bear could muster, Bepo slipped into Law's room and closed the door behind him quietly. He saw his captain standing in the centre of his room, looking oddly out of place and lost.

"Captain?" He asked the human unsurely.

Bepo had been with Law since he was a little polar bear; a cub but not exactly a baby, a toddler in human's terms perhaps. The old man; Law's late master, had been the one who found him when he had been strolling in the harbour of Law's hometown—apparently his favourite pastime activity—and he had raised them. Bepo couldn't remember anything before he was taken in by the kind old man, and the young barely-teenager Law at that time had speculated that it might be permanent memory-loss due to heavy concussions. After all, Bepo had been severely wounded when the old man found him. The old man had graciously dumped the pitiful bear-cub into Law's hands and had promptly demanded that the boy healed the cub; Law had already been a proficient medic by then. Bepo recalled the time when the old man told him hilariously that Law had been furious by his sudden demands and had attempted to retaliate, but instead had his butt kicked by the old man.

The Trafalgar Law that Bepo knew had always been confident to a fault. The only time that Bepo had seen that lost look on his face was after the old master's funeral.

"Captain?" Bepo asked him again while taking a step towards him.

"It's odd," Law suddenly said while his eyes distractedly scanned his room, "how much difference it brings me when I don't have Ren in my hands, between knowing that she is in the room and knowing that she is not. Human's sub-consciousness is indeed a fascinating thing."

Law's voice was frighteningly detached and calm, as if he hadn't just been assessing _his own_ sub-consciousness.

"Captain, we _will_ get Ren back." Bepo said; that was the only thing he could say in times like this. Besides, he also had his own reasons for wanting to get Ren back. "I promised Gramps to look after her as well."

"_Bepo, make sure this silly boy doesn't lose or misplace Ren, okay? Really, I don't know what he'll do without you."_

"_I don't know what we'll do without you…" _

"_Yehahaha. You silly, silly bear. You two are big boys now, right? You'll be fine. The two of you…no, the three of you will be fine."_

"I know." Came Law's unusually soft voice. "That's why I allow only you to carry her."

**[Captain, we've reached the harbour. We're surfacing now.]**

"Ah, about time." Suddenly, the sadistic grin that Bepo knew only Trafalgar Law could pull off bloomed on his face. "Let's go down and hunt that girl."

Oh, someone was really SO going to get it.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Author's Note: <strong>__'Kaigara' means 'seashell' or 'shell', so Kaigara Island is Seashell Island. I always thought that the nodachi was something special since it's, well, unique. Probably like Luffy's Hat, or something like in terms of its sentiment value. I dunno. _

_Review please! So that I know what you think of this story so far and whether it's worth my time to write and you time to read or not =D_


	6. Of Witches and Ninjutsu

_**Disclaimer: **_One __Pi__ec__e belongs to Eeichiro Oda-sensei and whatever else that has rights on it. This is for personal use and not for commercial use__.__

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 6<strong>

_**OF WITCHES AND NINJUTSU**_

* * *

><p>Pathetic. Utterly pathetic. Nagisa didn't know whether she should guffaw at the whole pathetic-ness or to grimace at it. It was <em>ridiculously <em>pathetic.

Just as she had told Shakky that she wasn't going to stay in one place while running from Captain Pscyho Trafalgar Law of the Heart Pirates—aka biding her time and avoided the said crew like icky plague—Nagisa had gone off to hunt for bounty heads while staying at different inns and hotels. She had grabbed some bounty posters from Shakky's place—she had been right: Shakky _was_ a hard-core information broker—and had intended to ransack as many bounty heads as possible. As it turned out, however, there was another easier way to collect money. Tons of money. It was a way that was more convenient for her since it didn't attract a lot of attention; since defeating many bounty heads would guarantee unwanted attention on her, and it wasn't much of a hassle since there was no any real fighting whatsoever involved. What was the method?

Pickpocketing, of course.

The pathetic-ness that Nagisa had been talking about was actually about how downright shamefully pathetic the way the people in Sabaody protected their wallets. Seriously? In her entire pickpocketing career, she had never had any easier time relieving people of the contents of their wallets and the wallets themselves. It was so easy it felt more like they deliberately let her take their wallets.

It had been only one and half a day since she had gone into the lawless zone with the intention of ransacking bounty heads, and now she already pocketed a handsome amount of Berri—almost close to a million Berri, if she wasn't mistaken.

_Man, if I continue like this, I can be a millionaire in no time, with my main source of income from pickpocketing alone,_ Nagisa mused gleefully as she expertly extracted another wallet from a random man who was unfortunate enough to pass by her. _Although I've gotta admit that this isn't exactly the most honourable way to use my ninjutsu. Mom's so gonna butcher me to a horrid death if she finds out._

Nagisa shuddered at the prospect of being punished by her mother. Her mother had never been lenient about giving punishment for the deserving ones. She was terrifyingly good and creative in inventing new methods of punishments, each new one worse and more peculiar-bordering-insane compared to the previous ones.

Ah, right. Nagisa was actually a _kunoichi_; a female stealth agent in her Wano Country who mostly worked for espionage, infiltration, sabotage and assassination missions. It was a family business; her mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, great-great-grandmother, and the previous generations all came from _kunoichi_ career. All her above-average agility and speed were with due respect to her gruelling, straight-from-hell-and-prescribed-by-the-Devil-himself trainings when she had been a _kunoichi_ trainee. Stealing was another skill that she had honed during the training; she sometimes had to retrieve documents that were hidden on someone's person—and hence her advanced pickpocketing skill.

_The Heart Pirates should've docked in this archipelago by now, if not yesterday. Should I check the harbour? _Nagisa thought as she pocketed the Berris and threw away the wallets without any care.

Agreeing with the impromptu—and rather reckless—decision, Nagisa leapt to the branch of the nearest tree and began hopping from one branch to another like a nimble squirrel. All the while, she kept a close observation on the crowds that were flooding the streets, her keen eyes searching for any men in white jumpsuits. So far there were none. When she was near the harbour area, Nagisa slowed down her pace considerably. She crept even more stealthily around the branches of the trees. The harbour was rather open, with most of the trees growing more inland. Nagisa perched herself on the tree that was nearest to the harbour and thus provided her with vantage view of most of the harbour. It didn't take her too long to spot a yellow submarine bobbing up and down at one of the many docks.

_Bingo_. Nagisa congratulated herself.

She then spotted the crew of the Heart Pirates spilling from the said submarine, with that bloody 'Surgeon of Death' in the lead. Nagisa noted that he was walking with slight limp—most probably due to the cut she had inflicted on his ankles during her great escape on the other day. Well, it was impressive that he had recovered that much in such short period of time. He stopped a distance from the submarine and waited until his men had all gathered around him before he issued some orders—or so she guessed at the very least. After a while, the crew dispersed and went in groups of three except for the captain; who was accompanied with the polar bear, and two other men that Nagisa vaguely remembered. When she had been hiding all over the submarine before she finally made her grand escape from the clutch of Captain Psycho, Nagisa had heard some conversations exchanged between the crew.

_If I remember correctly, then those two should be the third-in-commands, and that polar bear—what's the name? Bepo, is it?—is the First-mate. Fancy having a talking polar bear as a First-mate. I guess Captain Psycho's at least not close-minded. _Nagisa scowled at her own thoughts. _Or maybe he's keeping him exactly because he's a talking animal, and therefore an entertaining object. _

Nagisa hadn't really had a proper time to observe the crew during her hide-and-seek 'game' in the submarine since she was too busy keeping herself invisible in attempt to save her hide from Captain Psycho. However, she could gather that Bepo was most of the time by Captain Psycho's side unless the former was running errands for the latter.

_Okay, so back to the business—or rather, my circumstances. So Captain Psycho's here, so best course of action will be to go to Shakky's place and hide there for indefinite time without going out AT ALL until Captain Psycho gets tired of searching for me and goes his merry way to the New World. I have enough Berris with me to last quite long staying in Shakky's place, so everything's set and fine. _

Nagisa stared at the figure of Trafalgar Law that was sauntering his way into the crowded area of Sabaody Archipelago, most likely to interrogate people about her whereabouts. No doubts the others were also sent to do exactly the same thing. Nagisa looked at each of the groups, and then back to Trafalgar Law again.

…_Naaaaah. I just have to mess around with them first. I won't approach Captain Psycho at all, he's too creepy. I guess the others are still pretty much harmless. _

Nagisa hopped from the branch of the trees and crept into the depth of the grove. She then went to the spot where the cast shadows of the trees overlapped, resulting in the thickest patch of shadow. She stood on that spot and brought up her hands. She intertwined her fingers in one particular form, and with closed eyes she chanted:

"**Kage no Jutsu: Clones**!"

The effect was immediate. The cast shadow beneath her squirmed as if it suddenly gained life on its own. It rose from the ground and quivered rather violently as it expanded and tore itself. The cast shadow divided itself into five cast shadows, and those five started to shift into one similar shape. Soon enough, five duplicates of Nagisa stood before her. Once the cloning process was complete, Nagisa broke her hands formation and opened her eyes. Without speaking a word, she merely nodded at her clones and they all dispersed to different directions after each of them gave her an affirmative nod.

Simply said, she had instructed her clones to go after five groups of the Heart Pirates that were scattered all over Sabaody Archipelago at the moment, while giving them mental notes not to approach the captain at all. Their task was simple: relieve the Heart Pirates of their burden that was called Berris. And she was no fool; she was going to go back to Shakky's place and kept herself hidden there while her clones did all the works. Even if her shadow clones were caught, they could disperse into raw shadows again at her will although consequently the Berris would be left behind. No hassle in that. They wouldn't be able to track her down to Shakky's bar even if they had encountered her clones.

Nagisa gave herself a huge silly grin.

"Oh, revenge is sweet indeed."

* * *

><p>"Shanks! It's time for you to go!" Meifeng screamed at him while she bludgeoned yet another unfortunate pirate who was idiotic enough to charge at her.<p>

"Is it?" Shanks yelled back as he cut another Kaidou pirate down.

"The wind tells me that the Whitebeard Pirates have crossed over to 'Paradise' Grand Line. They'll reach Marineford anytime soon. There's no need for you to deal with these cretins. Go now! Get ready!"

"But these pirates—"

"I don't care! You can drop them to sea on the way there, whatever!" Meifeng leapt to the sky and took out a huge oriental fan seemingly out of thin air.

"Everyone, get a good grip on the ship!" Shanks ordered his men at the top of his lungs while he himself grabbed the railing of the ship; almost clinging to it for dear life. Knowing Meifeng, Shanks was aware that she would probably blast them straight over the Red Line to 'Paradise' Grand Line if she could help it. Oh, Roger forbade it; that was just downright scary. Lucky for him there were Commandments that restricted the movements and actions of Meifeng and her fellow sisters.

As the Red-Hair Pirates scrambled to cling at any immovable parts of the ship; temporarily ignoring the Kaidou Pirates, Meifeng brought up the gigantic fan as if in slow motion. She then screamed:

"**S****ōu****: Godspeed**!"

The moment Meifeng brought down the fan, a terribly powerful blast of wind assaulted the Red-Hair Pirates' ship the Red Force. The force of the gust of wind was so strong that the Red Force was sent flying above the ocean surface. It was a hilarious scene; with the Red Force flying and with the crew clinging for their dear life while some of them were squeaking and squealing and shrieking quite effeminately, and while the Kaidou Pirates who were unfortunate enough to still be on-board the Red Force were flung off the deck of the flying ship like some litters. At the same time, Kaidou himself was cursing to high heavens with vocabularies that would make Buddha's ears bled ten times over.

"You little witch! So you are in his cahoots!" Kaidou screamed in indignation at Meifeng; who was currently floating in the air at complete ease as if she was standing on even ground.

"Witch this, witch that." Meifeng rolled her eyes in profound exasperation. Some pirates just didn't have the word 'mannerism' in their already limited dictionary. "How rude of you all, calling us witches while we are not—"

"You witches ain't supposed to screw around with pirates' battles! Ain't that the bloody golden rule of your people?"

Meifeng narrowed her eyes into dangerous slits, those brilliant brown orbs glinting in what was very much akin to murderous gleams that promised tortures beyond the standard of even a ruthless pirate like Kaidou. Some of Kaidou's men cowered when they realised that their captain was being on the receiving end of that stare. Meifeng was a notorious witch in the New World; as were most of the witches in the New World, but she was on a whole different level than the other witches.

"What do you know about our Commandments, you filthy pirate?" She all but growled, fuelling the men's fear even more. "You murdered every single one of my sisters that you encountered, how will you know anything about our Commandments except for the obvious and rudimentary ones?"

Meifeng's fan was raised again way above her head, and some of Kaidou's crew were already scrambling in panic. For some pirates who had survived a battle with Meifeng in the past and lived to tell the tale, they would usually say that this particular gesture of her raising her fan way over her head would only spell DOOM.

"**Fēnglì yèpiàn: shatter**!"

As the fan was brought down, the air around Meifeng vibrated to the point that it looked distorted. In the next millisecond, the effect was profound: blades of wind surged from the air around the woman and zoomed towards the general direction of the Kaidou Pirates in scattering manner. The wind blades indiscriminately minced any of the men who were unprepared enough. The unlucky ones had their limbs chopped off, while the more lucky ones would only get some nasty cuts. Only Kaidou himself managed to emerge largely unscathed.

When the Yonkou reoriented himself; he had staggered after the sudden barrage of wind blades from Meifeng, he found that the woman was nowhere to be seen. There was not a single trace of her at all. It was as if she had dissolved into thin air—and she might as well have done exactly so. Just as he was about to cuss again, eldritch wind blew around the ship; engulfing the entire crew. The men shivered when their bare skin came into contact with the cold, unforgiving wind. A soft, cold voice then resounded with the wind, as if the wind had spoken.

_**Remember, Kaidou of the Yonkou. You are sailing the sea of the New World; OUR territory. The only reason I spare you in this occasion is because you still have a role to fulfil in this Great Age of Pirate. Otherwise…**_

The men couldn't help but to shiver in fear. Kaidou himself; despite the ugly scowl etched and grafted on his face, couldn't help but to have beads of cold sweats running down his temple.

_**You and your men would have been obliterated since long time ago for your insolence…**_

At the last word that seemed to be hissed in malevolence, the wind departed from around the area, leaving the Kaidou Pirates' ship stranded in the middle of nowhere. Kaidou cursed to high heavens again, but he still couldn't get rid of the goosebumps that were invading every inch of his skin.

Damn those creepy witches. _This_ was the sole reason why he annihilated all witches on sight. They were just too dangerously fickle.

* * *

><p>"Ooooh, the Kaidou Pirates are so far away now. Awesoooome." Shanks whistled as he put a hand horizontally on his eyebrow level and leaned over the railing of his ship to look at the other Yonkou's crew that was already as small as a black dot. The Red Force had finally landed in a gliding manner on the ocean surface after being blown by Meifeng's power, and was now sailing at a relatively normal pace towards the direction of the Fishman Island.<p>

"She's surprisingly very eager to help us, eh?" Benn said with a smirk.

"Oh, that's because it's Portgas D. Ace that's involved." Shanks turned around and leaned his back against the wooden railing. "Like Captain Roger was, Ace is also a carrier of the 'Will of D'."

_Like Luffy is,_ Shanks added fondly in his heart as he recalled the determined face of that young boy years back in a remote town in East Blue. How he missed his Anchor…

"I don't know the real extent since Captain Roger didn't tell me the whole thing, but the 'Will of D' has quite significant meaning among the witches. You are aware of that as well, yes, Benn?"

"I know. I've noticed that they usually pay extra attention whenever the ones with 'D' are mentioned." Benn said quietly. He himself still didn't fully comprehend what the games that those witches were playing. If anything, he didn't feel like meddling with their politics; these women were shrouded in thick mysteries and they were bound by a set of strict rules that would seem to be unbreakable.

"Mmhm. So, with Ace being a 'D' is already enough reason for her to take independent course of actions despite her being a 'witch' and Ace being a pirate. Or even us and the Whitebeards being pirates. I think it's one of the exceptions in their Commandments. They have so many Commandments I can't keep track of them, no matter how many times Mei-chan tried to recite them to me." Shanks continued while waving his hand, emphasising on how hopelessly long the list of the Commandments was.

"Is that the reason why she often times bludgeons you with her weapons in acute impatience, Captain?" Benn asked with a raised eyebrow. Yes, he had often seen his Captain being abused by the witch while the latter was screeching something along the line of 'you and your bloody short-term memory!'

"Dahahaha!" Shanks laughed out loud. "She's such a drama-queen. Has always been like that since the first I met her over two decades ago."

"_Over _two decades ago?" Benn blinked, and Shanks just knew where the direction of his thoughts were, judging from that tone. "Then how old is—"

"Benn." Shanks intercepted, and there was a very uncharacteristic serious look on the visage of Red-Haired Shanks. Benn raised an incredulous eyebrow at this. "That is a question that you _must_ never ask to her."

Benn was quite for a while, before he broke into a nasty grin.

"Speaking from personal experience, Captain?"

"Exactly!" Shanks blurted out with a horrified look that just looked comical to the First-mate's eyes. "You have not an idea on how God-awful her reaction was to that blasphemous question!"

Benn could only snicker as he enjoyed the flustered expression and gesticulation of his captain as he recalled the horrid experiences vis-à-vis a certain vicious brunette.

"Captain Roger and Master Rayleigh had to come to my rescue at that time. It was also thanks to Buggy since he alerted them fast enough before she throttled me into my untimely death." Shanks shuddered, but he continued prattling on about the horrible young lady. "Mei-chan, Captain, and Master Rayleigh were old acquaintances. They go all the way back to even before I joined the Roger Pirates. Shortly after they entered the New World, they took a detour to West Blue for some business and that was when I joined the crew."

Shanks smiled fondly at the memories of those good ol' days. Meifeng had been unforgiving towards him; saying that she couldn't stand his guts and had always tried to mince-meat him. He remembered how horrified he had been when the Captain told him that Meifeng had never gone all-out when 'torturing' the teenage Shanks at that time.

He recalled with fondness how he had re-entered the New World; as the Captain of the Red-Hair Pirates, and had met with Meifeng again.

**XXXX FLASHBACK XXXX**

"Shanks? You're Shanks, right?" The woman floating in the naked air said in incredulity as she stared at the young captain of the Red-Hair Pirates.

Some of the crew were in the midst of some sort of panic attack—aka babbling gibberish—when they saw the airborne woman as the first thing they encountered when they entered the New World. Shanks had warned them of the facts in the New World water that the impossible might be possible, but still! This was just too creepy! The young Captain also did tell them to beware of the females in the New World for a reason that he had yet to disclose; as he told them to just; quoted: 'come with me and find out on your own'.

"How many Shanks do you know, Mei-chan?" Shanks grinned from ear to ear as he regarded the young woman with a mischievous smile. Inwardly, he was vaguely wondering why the young woman still looked exactly the same as the first day Shanks had met her years back when he first joined the Roger Pirates.

Meifeng stared at him, and then at the whole crew—some of the men cringed when her stare landed on them—and then back to Shanks again. Then, she broke into savage laughter of amusement that rang like a wind-chime disturbed by a gust of strong wind.

"AHAHAHAHAHAHA! Boy, this is rich! You have your own crew now?" She sounded so ridiculously amused by this that Shanks almost took it as insult. Meifeng then waved her dainty index finger in a very teasing way and continued taunting him. "Ah, ah, ah… Trying to surpass good old Roger, aren't we?"

"That's not my intention! We only want to have good adventures." Shanks defended hotly.

"Uh-hm. I see…" She tapped her chin in mock thoughtfulness, and Shanks couldn't read her at all—he never could and he suspected that he would never be able to. " Hm? Where's that stupid insufferable clown? He isn't with you? Oh well, so much the better. I can't stand him anyhow."

"I think Buggy wants to continue being a pirate. At first I asked him to join me, but he refused."

Meifeng gave a very ungraceful snort. "Him in your crew? Oh, Trinity forbids that. Well, anyway, since you are good Roger's golden boy," her eyes landed on the straw hat he was wearing, "I'll let you off easy this time. I'll visit you next time, and that will be when the real test begins."

"Really? That's very generous of you." Shanks gave her a bright smile; and she responded with a devilish smirk of her own.

"Well, until then, Shanks." She said with a wave of her hand. Suddenly, her figure quivered and it thinned out until it completely dissolved into thin air.

The crew of the Red-Hair Pirates were still gawking at the very same spot where the woman had been standing a few seconds earlier, until one man finally approached the young red-haired captain.

"C, c, captain… W, what tests?"

"Hm?"

"You never said anything about 'tests' when we were about to enter the New World!" Another one protested.

"Oooh. Right. I totally forgot."

"CAPTAIN!"

"DAHAHAHA! It doesn't matter. Since you don't know about it, all the more reason for you to wait in anticipation and stay alert on your toes, yes? Isn't this more exciting?"

Some of the men groaned in exasperation, others cheered in agreement with their fearless captain, while Benn could only shake his head with a knowing smirk on his face. One of the men suddenly squeaked out a question:

"So…_what_ is that woman?"

**XXXX END OF FLASHBACK XXXX**

* * *

><p>"Ah, Ray-san." Shakky greeted the said man when she heard the bell of her bar's door chiming, her cigarettes between her fingers and an amused expression on her frighteningly youthful visage. "I have news about Monkey-chan."<p>

"Oh? What is it?" Rayleigh raised an eyebrow and sat down on one of the stools.

"It would seem that he has infiltrated Impel Down alone." The bar-owner said straight to the point as she put down a glass of ale for the former pirate.

Rayleigh's eyebrows rose so high they disappeared among the wrinkles on his forehead. Then, he broke into odd laughter.

"That boy is crazy to the bone!" He finally said after his bouts of laughter had receded and he had taken a sip of his drink. "Did he go there to rescue 'Fire Fist' Ace?"

"Apparently so. However, I think he'll be too late for that. By now 'Fire Fist' Ace should already be in a Marine ship, in the process of being transferred to Marineford for his upcoming execution." Shakky said calmly while Rayleigh went off to fetch the newspaper.

The former First Mate of the Pirate King perused the newspaper until he found the articles that he had been looking for. There were news about the Shichibukai being assembled by the World Government in preparation for the imminent was with the Whitebeard Pirates, but Rayleigh was looking for one particular Shichibukai at the moment. After a while, he found what he needed to know:

"Hm? Strange. Hancock went to visit Impel Down on board of a Government ship?"

"Yes. And soon after her arrival, Monkey-chan infiltrated that underwater prison. An interesting coincidence, no?" Shakky said with a knowing smile.

"Hmm… Looking at the circumstances, that is the only probable theory. Luffy-kun can't possibly sneak into Impel Down without any aid. However…" Rayleigh glanced at the map that was spread next to the newspaper and stared at the island of Amazon Lily drawn on the said map. "Since Hancock hates both the Government and men, I don't think that she'd get on a Government ship, especially not to help a man. Now this part is all theoretical."

"But how about this?" Shakky said as she tapped her cigarettes on the ashtray; discarding a good amount of ashes off her cigarettes, and took one drag before continuing; "say that Hancock fell in love with Monkey-chan, everything makes sense. Monkey-chan _is_ a good-looking guy. And if I were Hancock, I'd give him refuge on Amazon Lily to spite the Marines."

Rayleigh grunted a chuckle and turned to the bar-owner with questionable age. "That's a very subjective theory, Shakky."

Shakky didn't say anything back and merely gave Rayleigh a quiet, small knowing smile. Rayleigh opened his mouth and was about to say something but he then decided against it. He then turned around and his eyes landed on thenodachi that was leaning against the wooden wall of the bar. Earlier on he had requested Nagisa that he be allowed to inspect the long sword, and Nagisa had easily complied. He then had confirmed that the sword did belong to his old friend Isora.

"If she is really Isora's granddaughter…" Rayleigh began quietly and thoughtfully, and Shakky looked up to observe the old former pirate. "Then she should be another 'D'."

"Oh?" Now Shakky was interested. She knew one or two thing about the 'Will of D', and she wouldn't let a chance to know more about that enigmatic concept like this slip by.

"Her full name should be Sōhaku D. Nagisa, seeing that my friend's full name was Sōhaku D. Isora."

"Does that mean she will have a significant role?" Shakky asked.

"So you do notice as well?"

"Those with 'D' in their name usually are famous for one reason and another. There are plenty of samples to derive that conclusion from." Shakky said easily as she took a drag and looked up to the ceiling of her bar. "Gol D. Roger, Monkey D. Garp, Monkey D. Luffy, Portgas D. Ace, Marshall D. Teach. They are all prominent figures."

"Well, true enough." Rayleigh said with a chuckle.

"So? How about this friend of yours?" Shakky asked.

"Oh, he wasn't famous as the other 'D's are. He told me that he was a failure as a carrier of the 'Will of D'. It seems that not all 'D' possess the same characteristics; that strong will to live, that lack of fear towards death, that reckless fearlessness. There are some 'anomalies', as I like to call it, and Isora was one of them. Comparing him with the other 'D's, I have to say that he was indeed quite different from them. More down-to-earth and less flashy, at the very least." Rayleigh laughed at his own choice of words. The last bit sounded like what Buggy would have said.

"Hmm… This is new to me." Shakky commented with a highly curious expression.

"Well, that is to be understood. It's been almost over forty years since the last time you set a foot in the New World. Although you keep track of all news and information and knowledge, this kind of information is highly classified. Very few know about them, and those who know are very unlikely to spread it around casually."

"So why are you telling me this then?" Shakky asked him, but there was a slight tint of teasing in her voice.

"Shakky." Rayleigh's tone was not unlike those used by a grandfather who was explaining things to a young child. "You and I are veterans in this pirating world that have survived the New World. That is a given. Therefore, we have an extent of understanding that certain knowledge are not to be told to just anybody else indiscriminately. You are certainly the type who's picky about whom you will share knowledge with."

Shakky nodded in agreement, and waited until Rayleigh was finished with what he had to say.

"Besides, we are dealing with the carriers of the 'Will of D' here. The 'Will of D' changes the destinies of the people around them, they touch people's hearts in one way or another. Some people are undeniably and inevitably attracted to these people. You and I are among these people; we have been exposed and have interacted with a number of them. We _will_ get swiped into the storm that is imminent." Rayleigh then offered her a knowing smile. "It is best to be prepared with the necessary knowledge, right?"

Shakky then gave a light laugh.

"If my examination on the history is correct, then I should say that this is the first time in history that so many 'D's are taking the highlights in one era." She commented as she looked at the newspaper clipping that she had dedicated especially for the 'D's. She wasn't blind. She knew that something big was coming.

"Precisely." Rayleigh nodded.

The old former First-mate of the Pirate King then stood up and lifted the nodachi in his hands. He felt the weight of the sword in his hands, remembering the day he had spent with Isora in Kaigara Island; the sparring, the bladesmithing, the idle chats, the short reunion in Sabaody Archipelago several years back and the small party that followed suit. It was a pity that he couldn't get to meet the kindly man before his death for one last time. Well, at least he got to meet his granddaughter.

"There has been only a few female 'D's, yes?" Shakky suddenly said.

"Yes. Even in the New World they are very far and between. I've only encountered two of them, three counting Nagisa-chan now. Female 'D's might be very few, but in the New World they are some of the most exceptionally powerful individuals in the New World."

"All of them are witches?" Shakky questioned, though she didn't seem surprised by it.

"Yes."

"So Nagisa-chan will be a witch as well, but her power just hasn't awakened?" Shakky speculated happily.

"It would seem to be the case here." Rayleigh put down the nodachi gently. "She has mentioned the Trinity for a few times, so I suppose she is aware that she will be a witch."

"_Yes, I'm BACK, thank Trinity! Gawd dammit!"_

"_Alright! Trinity bless him! Then, then?"_

"Ah, yes. She did mention them." Shakky nodded. "So, does this mean Nagisa-chan will change the destiny of Trafalgar Law and his crew, since she seems to be very involved with them?"

"If I am to be so bold as to wildly speculate about it, then I suspect that Trafalgar Law will have quite a major role. His involvement with the 'Will of D' should have started when he first came into contact with Isora, though."

Rayleigh looked down at the nodachi resting peacefully against the wooden wall. Knowing Isora and his insane obsession about his own nodachi, Rayleigh knew that the man would rather bury the sword with his dead boy rather than handing it over to someone he didn't approve of even when Death was claiming his life. Rayleigh narrowed his eyes at this thought.

_What did you see in him that you entrusted your Ren to him, Isora?_

* * *

><p>He had been resisting the urge to twitch his fingers every now and then. It was the first time after two years that he had been going out without Ren within easy reach of his hands. It didn't feel right; he felt out of place. It was as if he was missing a limb; an extension of his body. This discomfort put Law at very foul mood for the whole duration of his stay in Sabaody—which had been about a day since his crew had docked on the shores of the archipelago yesterday evening. Law sincerely couldn't wait until he got his hands on that girl who had the audacity to steal Ren from him. Oh, he would let her live; to tell the tale that nobody messed with his nodachi and got away with it.<p>

Currently he was sitting down in a corner of a bar in Sabaody, listening to the conversations around him while hoping that he could get the slightest clue about that Nagisa girl. So far it had been a futile attempt. Bepo was also making himself as resourceful as possible. Law had caught him sniffing around in his attempt to catch the scent of the girl's clothes. Bepo had claimed that while her clothes smelled of sea and grass, the smell was a tad different than the normal smell of grass and sea. It was as if they were the smell of another variant of sea water and grass. Law honestly couldn't care less at the moment, he just needed to find that girl, got Ren back, and punished that little thief accordingly.

"….a thief…"

Law stopped his train of thoughts. That word was said by one of the men sitting around the table next to the one he was occupying with Bepo. For some reasons, Law felt compelled to listen to the rest of the conversation. Perhaps it had something to do with the little thief he had in mind.

"Yeah. I heard about it as well. It's just weird. Lots of people suddenly lost their wallets in two days? I mean, this has never happened before!"

"I know. True that there are lawless zone around here and robbery are common there, but the pickpocketing happened outside the lawless area."

"Do you think this is done by one thief?"

"Most likely yeah."

Law smirked to himself. Oh, this was definitely his thief. The speed in which she darted from the door of the submarine to his spot on the deck was astonishing, and he didn't doubt that she might be using that speed for this nasty deed of relieving people of their stuffed wallets. Probably she did so to fund herself here in Sabaody. Law sat back in a more relaxed manner as he willed his hearing to be more acute; perhaps these gentlemen had more information about his little thief.

"Did they report this to the Marines?"

"They did. But the Marines were too busy with the preparation for the upcoming execution of Portgas D. Ace."

Law narrowed his eyes at this. Portgas D. Ace; Commander of the Second Divison of Whitebeard Pirates? They were going to execute him? Had the Marines gone insane? That was practically an invitation for war to Whitebeard himself.

"This is crazy! Do you think Sabaody will get any sort of backlash from the war?"

"Maybe. I mean, Sabaody Archipelago is so close to Marineford, after all."

"Oh, oh, I heard they're going to broadcast the war here in Sabaody! Isn't that cool or what?"

"Seriously? For real? Holy crap, I'm so watching it!"

There were several others voices of agreements but Law decided to tune out the rest of the conversation. It seemed that they weren't going to talk about anything informative about his present interest, although the bit about the execution and war was very useful indeed. It provided him with the insight on how to plan the next move smoothly.

"Bepo, we are leaving." Law said with his usual laid-back voice.

"Okay, Captain." The polar bear answered with quiet voice. He was always quiet when in public; he rarely talked at all unless strictly necessary. Being majorly bi-pedal was already making him weird enough in the eyes of the people, Bepo didn't need any more unnecessary prodding about his ability on human speech.

Law had just taken a step out of the bar when suddenly two flurries of white came charging at him from his left and right. In the next second, he had two groups of his men in front of him; well, not quite standing up properly since they were panting so heavily as if they had just done a marathon around the archipelago. Law watched them in mild amusement as he waited patiently for them to gather back their breathing.

"C, cap—_*wheeze*_—captain—*_wheeze*—_Captain, we—*_wheeze_*" One of them tried, but failed epically.

"We saw her!"

Law was stiff for a while, before a sadistic grin made a full bloom on his face.

"Where?" Law asked in a voice that promised so much tortures and pain.

"There!"

Law blinked. He was given two _opposite_ directions, and the men were very sure with the direction that they had pointed to. Noticing the questioning look on his face, the crew then realised that they had given him two opposing directions and they started to argue among themselves.

"No, she's that way!"

"No! I saw her there with my own eyes! Right?"

"Yeah, yeah! She was definitely there! She even stole my Berris before running off!"

Suddenly, another bunch of his men came to him and started blabbering about seeing the girl on _another completely different _direction. Then came another group. And another.

There were five groups of three of his men standing in front of him, each group giving him different directions on where they had seen that little thief and from their argument it seemed that they had seen the girl on approximately the same time. Law crossed his arms and tapped his foot on the group impatiently. He couldn't believe it.

Outwitted for the third time by the same girl as she made a fool out of his crew.

Law raised a hand and pinched the bridge of his nose with his index finger and thumb. He could see an oh-so-grand headache coming his way. First of all, he was still upset over Ren getting stolen from him. However, the more he assessed the situation, the more he found that this girl couldn't be just an ordinary person. She clearly had extraordinary skills, and whether they were to be attributed to the experimentations performed on her when she had been young was a matter to be debated but Law couldn't care less about that for the moment. The top priority would be to catch her alive.

_There are so many answers I need out of her. _The logical part of himself kept reminding himself, since the irrational part kept telling him to mutilate the girl into itsy-bitsy pieces once he got his hands on her. The most important answer he needed out of her was how she was related to the old man.

In any case, he needed to stop the childish actions of his crew since passer-byes were already staring at them as if they were some asylum patients that had escapes from mental institutions.

"Guys." He said with calm voice, and the men immediately stopped their bickering and looked at him with anticipation in their expression. "Whoever find her and bring her to me alive and _tied_, will be relieved of cleaning duty for one full month. Also, make a point to search every single inn and hotel in this archipelago. Tell the others as well."

"AYE-AYE CAPTAIN!"

And they all ran back to the respective directions from where they had come before, leaving trails of dusts in their wake. Law was once again left in his peace with Bepo. The polar bear turned to the directions to where his crewmates had disappeared into and scratched the back of his furry head at length.

"What do we do now, Captain?" He asked in his slow, draggy voice.

"We hunt as well." He drawled as he began to limp towards the direction of the harbour.

"Why are we going back to the submarine, Captain?" Bepo asked once he figured out that they were going to the direction of the harbour.

"We aren't going back to the sub, Bepo. We will be asking the gentlemen in the harbour about our girl." But perhaps he could go to the infirmary first and administer some pain-killer to his ankles. The throbbing pain was distracting him.

"Oh." Bepo was quiet for a while, before he asked again: "Why the harbour?"

"We need to be systematic if we want to catch this girl as efficiently as possible, as she is evidently too clever for her own goodness. Now, we first saw her in the harbour when she had been talking to Sam. With the commotion that happened on that day, some people are bound to remember the incident. Perhaps one of them will know who that girl is." Law explained to the polar bear patiently. "It is confirmed that she has gone back to this archipelago, the _simultaneous multiple_ apparitions aside. Also, people will notice if they see a girl carrying an oversized sword so it will make our questioning easier and more specific."

"Ah. I see." Bepo pounded the side of his balled fist to his open paw in the universal 'I got it' body language. "Captain, you are so smart!"

Law only smirked at Bepo's words. Despite the praise from the polar bear, Law didn't exactly feel proud of himself. First of all, he had yet to see if this method was working or not. He would readily boast if he had really gotten her all tied up nicely and ready for a good long episode of painful interrogation—he would make sure that it was painful for her.

* * *

><p>"Hi, Shakky!" Nagisa cheered as she skipped her way inside the bar, and then dropped a fat pouch on the counter. "Lookie here! I've got tons of Berris to pay for my lodging starting today since Captain Psycho's group is here so I won't be going out at all! Ah, I see you've hidden the nodachi as I requested. Thanks a bunch! Oh, where's Rayleigh-san?"<p>

"Welcome back, Nagisa-chan. Ray-san went out just a few minutes ago. He's going to take care of the Straw Hats' ship." Shakky said as she looked up from the newspaper she was reading.

Nagisa blinked.

"The Straw Hats' ship?" She parroted in a very confused manner. At first she didn't know what the older woman was talking about, but it soon was registered into her mind. _Right. The Shichibukai had blown the Straw Hats to Trinity-knows-where, so of course the ship is left behind. _"So Rayleigh-san is protecting their ship?"

"Yes, with the help from the Rosy Life Riders and Hattchin, and Keimi and Pappug as well."

Nagisa blinked a few times while frowning. "Who?"

Shakky laughed at her comical expression. "The Straw Hats' friends. If you go to Grove 41, you will see a very cute ship with an adorable lion figurehead there. There you will find a group of people protecting the ship from pirates and Marines alike."

"Aaaa~" She stretched her word, "I see. Alright." She shrugged and plopped down to one of the stools. "If I can't see Monkey D. Luffy, there's no point in me going there."

"Hm? So you're interested in Monkey D. Luffy?" Shakky asked teasingly.

"Not in a romantic way, I'm telling you." Nagisa tut-tutted, but then her voice faltered. "It's just that…"

"Because the two of you are 'D'?" Shakky asked. Upon seeing Nagisa's questioning eyes, she explained: "Ray-san told me about your grandfather. So your full name is Sōhaku D. Nagisa, then?"

"Yeah. I just want to meet another 'D'." Nagisa sighed as she rested her chin on the wooden counter top. "Another 'D' other than my family, that is."

"I see." Shakky said while nodding her head as she turned to the newspaper she had been holding in her hands. "Then, does that mean you know of Portgas D. Ace?"

"Ace? Sure I know! He's with that old man Whitebeard, right?"

"_Old man_ Whitebeard?" Shakky raised an eyebrow as she regarded the younger girl with quizzical eyes.

"Yeah! He really does act like an old man through and through. He's like your typical gruff grandfather who likes to sit back in their comfort chair and watches the children playing around him. Don't you think so?"

"Well, I certainly never think of him in that picture." Shakky chuckled. "So you know them personally?"

"Kind of. Sometimes they dock in my island just to hang out. There's nothing much in our island except for some nice sulphur hot springs that are good for health. Old man Whitebeard IS old, so he's been having problems with his health, I guess. But Ace is cool to hang out with! He told me so many interesting things that he encountered in his adventures! He also told me A LOT about his brother Luffy! I heard he's in this 'Paradise' Grand Line, so I hope I can see him along the way."

Nagisa began chattering away about the things that she used to do with Ace; about the pranks they pulled on the Whitebeard crew when they were in Kaigara Island, and all sorts of things. Halfway through her stories, however, Nagisa noticed that Shakky had adopted a sombre look on her face. Nagisa faltered in her chattering and she straightened up.

"What's wrong, Shakky?"

"You haven't heard of the news then, I take it." Shakky said with quiet voice as she handed Nagisa the newspaper.

The New World native didn't accept the newspaper straightaway. She looked at it as if it would grow a set of fangs that would attempt to bite off her hand. After a few seconds, only then she gingerly took the newspaper in her hands.

Or rather, intended to do so—since she suddenly stiffened as all the hair on her nape rose nastily, and her eyes widened exponentially. Instead of taking the newspaper like she was supposed to do, Nagisa quickly leapt over the counter and dove to hide underneath it. Within the same breath, she did some complicated moves with her fingers and hands, and then whispered:

"**Mokuton no Jutsu: Clone**."

Shakky watched with intrigue as the woods planks on the floor of her bar began to quiver slightly, and then the surface stretched as if it was made of rubber. An exact duplicate of the New World native was then formed out of the wooden floor. With a silent nod from the original, the clone leapt over the counter and quickly made a beeline for one of the windows that was on the opposite side of the door. Just as it had opened the window and threw itself out of the bar, the bell on the entrance door jingled.

One sentence flooded Nagisa's mind as she frantically tried to suppress her energy flow—which could be easily detected by Haki; weak as Captain Psycho's was—as she shrunk into the shade of the counter:

_How did he find me here?_

* * *

><p><em><strong>Author's Note: <strong>__More information about the witches, but not all of them. You can imagine them as female Devil Fruit users, although they are essentially not the same. I don't know anything about ninjutsu even if my life depends on it, so I just made up a bunch of them on my own while referring to Naruto wiki and historical ninjutsu =P_

_And please REVIEW! . I want and need to know your opinions about this fanfic so far._


	7. Dear Gramps

_**Disclaimer: **__One__Piece belongs to Eeichiro Oda-sensei and whatever else that has rights on it. This is for personal use and not for commercial use._

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 7<strong>

_**DEAR GRAMPS**_

* * *

><p>When Nagisa had suddenly engaged in a flurry of activities, Shakky knew that something bad was coming into the bar. Her intuition was proven correct when she turned to the door and saw who her new customer was. To her discreet surprise and delight, she saw none other than Trafalgar Law of the Heart Pirates ambling into her abode-cum-business house, with a talking bipedal bear in orange jumpsuit following faithfully behind him. Shakky couldn't help but to smile at the sight of the North Blue native Supernova lacking his trademark nodachi. She could also see; from the awkward way the young man's hands were stuffed into the pockets of his pants, that he wasn't comfortable with the unprecedented situation.<p>

"Welcome. What can I do for you?" Shakky asked the Supernova in her usual calm, detached demeanour.

She watched with interest as Trafalgar Law scanned the bar in one efficient swipe of his stormy-grey eyes. She noted how his eyes landed on the open window for a fraction longer, before he returned his attention to her. He then took a seat on one of the stools, curiously just the one that Nagisa had been sitting on a moment ago. The small twitch at the corner of his mouth didn't escape Shakky's keen observations.

_Looks like Nagisa-chan has been had_, she mused with interest as she waited for him to say something.

"A cup of good coffee will do me well, if it isn't too much of a trouble." Trafalgar Law finally said with easy voice as he shot her something that was akin to a disarming smile—which didn't work on Shakky, of course. She had been around for too long to be affected by such thing.

"Of course it isn't. And what will you cute, fuzzy companion want for a drink?" Shakky turned to regard the white polar bear.

The bear blinked and stared at her with hisr small, beady eyes.

"…Do you have milk?"

Shakky blinked. She had expected the bear to talk; Nagisa had told her about the talking bipedal bear of First-mate of the Heart Pirates, and honestly she had seen talking animals before when she had been an active pirate in the New World decades ago. It was just that it was cute to hear the bear-pirate asking for milk. Shakky couldn't help but to laugh.

"Oh, I have plenty." Shakky said with a chuckle as she turned around to pour the milk and gave it to the happy bear, and began preparing the requested coffee. "I have to say that it is rather strange to have a pirate like you ordering coffee instead of alcohol, though."

"Alcohol clouds my mind. I need my minds clear and sober to get things straight." Trafalgar Law said, still with a smile.

"I see that you've been having bad days as of late."

"Too true. I'm in search of someone who has been causing troubles to my crew."

"Really, now? What happened?"

"She has stolen something important for me, and I want it back." The North Blue native intertwined his fingers and leaned slightly forward over the counter. "That said, in my investigation I heard that this person is affiliated with you. She is a girl of short stature with black hair and turquoise eyes, wearing blue patterned outfit and black underlay, and carrying an oversized sword."

Shakky could detect the accusing tone in the captain's voice. She smiled despite herself. Despite the blatant distrust that his voice implied, Shakky could see that Trafalgar Law was playing the role of a diplomatic person, with quite some ways with words. When she was finished making the coffee, she turned back to the Captain of the Heart Pirates and gave her response while putting the cup of coffee right in front of the interesting customer.

"Ah. You are talking about Nagisa-chan, then?" Shakky decided to play the risks in this game.

She could feel Nagisa turned stone rigid under the counter, and quietly congratulated the girl for not making any funny squeaking noises that people usually did when they discovered that they were being sold out—not that Shakky was selling her out, though. In fact, she was doing her a favour. Shakky knew what she was doing; she was going to see just how much and how far the Captain of the Heart Pirates had succeeded in his hunt for the New World native.

"Yes, that will be her. Do you happen to know where she is now? Although…" Trafalgar Law glanced at the seat he was sitting on, and then to the window. "It would seem that she has been here just a short moment ago."

"You're right, Surgeon-san. In fact, she has just bolted out of the place just a few seconds before you came in." Shakky said, enjoying the quizzical look on his face when she had called him 'Surgeon-san'. Oh, and she wasn't lying. Nagisa certainly bolted out of her bar just now—her perfect clone, that was; but the Supernova didn't need to know that.

"You seem to know who I am."

"Of course. Who doesn't know about the Supernova today?" Shakky gave him an unnerving smile. "Trafalgar Law of North Blue, captain of the Heart Pirates."

"Well, this is convenient. Bepo." He turned to the polar bear, and the latter perked up in attention from the milk that he was drinking in delight. "Go and track her down."

"But Captain," the bear started; sounding rather upset that he had to part so quickly from his milk, "this place smells like her."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. There's strong smell of sea water and grass here."

"Sea water?" Shakky intercepted after a flawlessly timed interval. "Oh, that's probably because this morning she has come here soaked in sea water from head to toe. I've cleaned up the mess, but perhaps the smell still lingers."

"Does she stay here, then?"

"This is just a bar, Surgeon-san. I don't accept lodging." Shakky said with a smile. It was true; Nagisa hadn't spent a night in her place, only a quick nap once. That certainly didn't count as lodging.

"I see. Bepo, go after her."

"Okay, Captain." The bear said dejectedly as he slid from the stool and turned to Shakky. "Thank you for the milk, Miss. It's delicious."

"Thank you as well, Bear-chan. Good luck with your errand." Shakky smiled and waved goodbye at him.

Shakky continued observing the interesting bear as it padded toward the entrance door, but Trafalgar Law then demanded her attention as he asked her yet another question.

"So, Miss…"

"Shakuyaku, owner of this establishment." Shakky offered.

"Miss Shakuyaku. What is your connection with Miss Nagisa?"

"She's my customer. She first came here three days ago in search of information—very much like you are right now, if I may add—but she was later kidnapped by your crew, isn't that right? The men in the harbour told me."

"It's strange that you will search for a simple customer like that. Do you do this for all of your customers?"

"No, but I just happen to really like her." Shakky gave him a mystifying smile. "Oh, and she came back this morning with a long sword with her; which she didn't have it prior the kidnapping. Perchance the sword is yours?"

A dark shadow fleeted across Trafalgar Law's grey eyes, and Shakky smiled with a raised eyebrow. Now this was the time for her to dig more information about how Trafalgar Law could get his hands to that nodachi.

"How odd." Shakky drawled as she exhaled a round of smoke. "Nagisa-chan told me that the sword belongs to her family."

The 'Surgeon of Death' narrowed his eyes and gave Shakky a piercing eyes that seemed to be intended to read her thoughts, but of course he failed to do so. Shakky was a veteran with decades worth more experiences than the boy, after all.

"What did she say about it?"

"Hmm… She did say that it belongs to her missing grandfather, a kind of family heirloom. She thought you stole it from him. Is that the case?"

Trafalgar Law gave a rather undignified snort; clearly upset by the accusation.

"No. That nodachi was handed to me from my late master; passed to me in his deathbed. I don't care if it's her family heirloom; provided that my late master was really her grandfather, but that nodachi is _mine_ now."

There was icy fire beneath that stormy-grey eyes, and Shakky could see from that determination and steadfastness that he treasured the nodachi just as much as Monkey-chan treasured his straw hat—the lively captain had prattled on how he got his hat from 'Red-haired' Shanks, and how he had bragged that it was his most precious treasure. Monkey-chan was the kind of man that would tear the world just for the sake of rescuing his most precious things, and it seemed that Trafalgar Law wasn't above that.

"…Her grandfather's name was Sōhaku D. Isora." Shakky's statement was more of a question of affirmation.

Trafalgar Law never took his piercing gaze from Shakky's eyes as he confirmed:

"That was also my late master's name."

"…I see." She said at length as she tapped her cigarette to discard the burnt end on the ashtray. "Well then, Surgeon-san, you will have to negotiate with Nagisa-chan regarding the nodachi, since she is adamant that it rightfully belongs to her now."

Suddenly, it felt as if the temperature in the room had dropped drastically. The air around the 'Surgeon of Death' was especially cold, with eldritch aura seemingly oozing from his very being. He looked up from under his furry spotted hat with glacial eyes that would deter anyone else from even coming into eye contact with him. Not Shakky, though. It needed more than that to shake the veteran. Shakky held eye contact with the Supernova as the latter glared at her for all he was worth. After a while, it seemed that the 'Surgeon of Death' decided that he was wasting his time glaring to the older woman that clearly was immune to his deathly glare.

"There is nothing to negotiate. The nodachi is mine, entrusted to me by the old man. I _will_ get it back from her." Law rose quickly from his seat, dropped a pouch full of Berri, and touched the rim of his furry hat as he bade his farewell: "Thank you for the drink, Miss Shakuyaku. It's a good coffee."

Shakky watched as the Captain of the Heart Pirates briskly made his way to the entrance door, before she called out to him.

"Wait, Surgeon-san."

The said man stopped in his tracks and half-turned to regard her with his cold eyes.

"The least you can do is to tell Nagisa-chan about her grandfather. She is searching for him."

His face darkened and the temperature dropped several degrees more.

"I do not take kindly to being ordered around, Miss Shakuyaku."

"I wasn't ordering you around, Surgeon-san. It's a suggestion, though I will be very much obliged if you take it to heart." Shakky said while exhaling some smokes. "Oh, and here's your change."

Shakky threw the pouch of Berris to him, and he caught it easily enough with one hand. Trafalgar Law gave her one long hard look—which she took in strides—before he turned around sharply and departed from the bar. Silence reigned in the bar once again after the Supernova left, and Shakky stared to the ceiling of the bar.

"Nagisa-chan." She said softly. "It's not a crime to cry."

A very, very faint sob could be heard from below the counter.

* * *

><p>Law stormed his way back to his submarine with his minds full of swirling thoughts. He hadn't bothered waiting or looking for Bepo, knowing that the polar bear would find him by tracking his scent anyway.<p>

The old man had repeatedly told him tales and stories about his granddaughter and granddaughter only. He had even described her appearance to him, although in a sickeningly doting and poetic manner that he usually tuned it out, but still! The clues had been so obvious that he felt so utterly foolish that he hadn't made the connection earlier.

He had described her of having short stature with very youthful face (translated from: "this small tiny pretty little adorable thing"), bluish black hair (translated from: "silky black curtain with blue tint under the sunlight"), very pale skin (translated from: "the smoothest, flawless porcelain skin"), and turquoise eyes (translated from: "the most mesmerising pair of turquoise gems"). Furthermore, and most of all, she had shown explicit interest on his nodachi that the old man had passed to him.

**XXXX FLASHBACK XXXX**

"You know, Law." The old man suddenly said in his quiet voice as he unsheathed the nodachi and held it up.

Law looked up from his medical book to stare at the old man. Whenever his master talked about something other than things related to Law's training on swordsmanship and martial arts, he would usually babble about something senile and pointless. However, this time he had that serious, contemplative tone in his voice. Law knew that the old man wasn't about to prattle on about something irrelevant or unimportant. Law knew when to really open up his ears and listened to the old man's words. Senile as he might often be, he was still his elder and Law desired his wisdom.

"Ren was actually forged for my granddaughter."

"Then why do you still have it with you? Don't tell me you don't have the heart to part with it."

"Oh, no no, that's not what I meant. You see, terrible things happened to my granddaughter before. She came home scarred for life. She had come back from hell, barely alive and utterly broken." The old man said in barely a whisper. "So broken I thought she would never heal. The only thing I could do for her, being a bladesmith, was only to make this blade as her charm of good luck of some sort. And you know what, Law?"

The old man turned to Law and gave a serene smile.

"She recovered. From the time this sword was completed and put in her room, she began recovering. It was a miracle."

Law said nothing and merely stared at the old man and the nodachi. The old man then put his forehead on the blade's flat side, perhaps imagining that it was his granddaughter's forehead. Something glinted from the corner of the old man's eyes.

"This blade's name 'Ren' means 'lotus' in my native language. Lotus is a flower that symbolises rebirth, especially representing the struggle of life, overcoming hard time and bitterness. It grows from a muddy ground of a pond, and blossoms into a very beautiful flower when it reaches the water surface. I had hoped that she would fully recover, forgetting all the nightmares and painful memories. But…"

"Trauma is never easy to deal with, Gramps, be it mental, physical, or emotional." Law said flatly.

"Right. Too true." The old man sighed forlornly.

"Then, if Ren is her good luck charm, why do you have it with you now?" Law asked with disinterested voice.

The old man didn't answer for a while, and Law thought he wasn't going to answer at all. But the old man did.

"The sweet child insisted that I brought this along with me when I went for my journey. She saw me off, was crying oceans, but had desired for me to bring her good luck charm."

"You should've insisted that she keeps it with her."

"I couldn't." The old man shook his head. "If you've seen her face at that time, you wouldn't' be able to refuse her request either. Her…sincerity…is nothing something you can just dismiss."

"Sounds like a crybaby to me." Law scoffed.

The old man said nothing; he didn't even scold Law or attempt to bludgeon him with his fist for being an 'impudent brat'. He merely gave a sad smile as he sheathed Ren.

"She is a bit of a crybaby, but…if you have seen a glimpse of the hell she had gone through, you'll understand."

**XXXX END OF FLASHBACK XXXX**

Law's pace was considerably slower and calmer by the time he had finished remembering the conversation with his late master. Then, he advertently recalled the facts that he had gathered about this Nagisa girl over the past few days, especially during the 'interview'.

The Hoof of the Flying Dragon. The slavery under Tenryuubito. The experimentations. The scars. The trauma. The fear of doctors and surgeons. The fear of infirmary.

"_So broken I thought she would never heal…"_

"_From the time this sword was completed and put in her room, she began recovering. It was a miracle."_

"_The least you can do is to tell Nagisa-chan about her grandfather. She is searching for him." _

Law wasn't a charitable person. He wasn't like the sentimental and empathic Straw Hat Luffy who would go out of his way to help people in distress, however he wasn't a bloodthirsty bastard like Eustass 'Captain' Kidd who could burn down an entire town with little to no logical reasons. He plundered and stole when in need. He killed when needed. He would condemn others to death or life of misery if the need arose. He was a practical and pragmatic person, and he was highly efficient in what he did.

Above all those, he was someone who knew when he had to be truly grateful.

He owed his current life to his late old master. Hadn't it been for him, he would have been doomed for a lifetime of plain boredom North Blue, condemned to be his hometown's doctor for the rest of his life until he kicked the proverbial bucket. Had the old man not come to his hometown eleven years ago, he wouldn't have known the wonders of the sea and the adventures beyond North Blue. He wouldn't have learned swordsmanship and martial arts. He wouldn't have broken free from the control of his oppressive parents.

Again, Law recalled those days; those evenings when Law and his master, with the small Bepo curling on the old man's lap, would sit on the wooden dock of the harbour and watched the sun diving slowly into the horizon. Or when they would stop Law's training and opted to sit on the boulders on one of the cliffs to watch the first snow. Or when Law would read his medical books in the old man's workshop by the hearth with Bepo pressed close to his side, while the old man would sing the old songs from his native homeland as he inspected and cleaned Ren.

"_Say, Gramps, where are you from?" Young Law asked as he groomed the small polar bear curling on his lap._

"_Hmm… My home country is far, far away. It's over those mountains that are stretched across the sea. It's a treacherous place, but it's still home…with my family over there…"_

"_Do you miss them?"_

_The old man gave a cackling laugh._

"_Who wouldn't? It's a pity that I won't be able to see them again, but I guess I'll be spending my old days here. This place is so peaceful, just perfect for my taste." _

"_This place is boring." The boy said dryly._

"_Yehahaha of course. Dear me, you sound exactly like my granddaughter. Young people like you shouldn't feel content with peaceful places. It's not healthy. Go for adventures, young one. Go out to the sea and meet a lot of people. See the world, learn everything. Then you will understand the weight of life, and also the importance of family and friends."_

Law wasn't a sentimental man.

But this was about his old master; one that he was grateful to, the person that was more like his true father than his biological parents were. The senile old man who loved his family so much he would ramble about them to no end until Law's ears felt like bruising after hearing so much about them.

"…_She recovered…It was a miracle…"_

Especially the granddaughter. The granddaughter he loved and doted on so much, sometimes Law envied her. Not even his parents showered him with so much genuine pure love and affections. They boasted to everyone about him being a medical genius, but that was all.

"_The least you can do is to tell Nagisa-chan about her grandfather. She is searching for him." _

Yeah. He would do that. He would even pardon her for stealing Ren; he understood her reasoning, especially after knowing her circumstances pertaining to the nodachi.

All those after he got Ren back, of course.

* * *

><p>The seawater was cruelly cold. The chill bit down to the marrow of her bones but still she stayed underwater. Water had always been her friend, for one reason and another. She could hold her breath in the water longer than average people, even more than the adults. She didn't know how she could pull it off, but sometimes she swore that she felt like she could breathe in the water; like a fish, like a mermaid. Sometimes she wished she was a mermaid, but most of the time she would realise that it would be a sad thing to be a mermaid because of those kidnappers who would try to kidnap mermaids for the money. She had had enough of being kidnapped. Once was enough.<p>

Although it was cold and dark inside the ocean, she found consolation in it. The water hugged her, embraced her, comforted her in its own way. Mother Sea loved her, and so did she love Her back. Her tears merged with the seawater as she mourned for the death of his dear grandfather

A few minutes after Trafalgar Law had departed from Shakky's Rip-Off Bar, Nagisa had grabbed the nodachi from the second floor of the bar and rushed to the nearest sea shore. She had taken off her haori and had hidden them somewhere safe, before she plunged headfirst into the ocean, clad only in her Seastone garment, and with Ren the nodachi in her hands. In the cold darkness of the sea, she hugged the nodachi like it was her lifeline.

"_Gramps, where are you going?" _

_"Ah, Nagi-chan. I'm going out to the sea, to the Grand Line, or perhaps beyond that."_

"_Why?"_

"_Why? Well, after hearing so much of the Four Blues beyond the Grand Line from those people—_

"_Pirates, you mean." _

"_Yes, them. Those seas sound so much like peaceful places, unlike here in the New World. Don't you want to see those wonderful places?"_

"_Nah. Sounds boring. It's fun here."_

"_Yahahahaha! Yes, perhaps for young ones like you peaceful places will be boring. Then, I'll leave you with your adventures here and I'll go for my adventure, okay? Hm? What's wrong, Nagi-chan?"_

"_Gramps…Must you go?"_

"_Ooh, you sweet little thing, don't cry. Kunoichi don't cry, right? You're a strong kunoichi, yes? Yes, that's right. Atta-girl. Wipe those tears away. Tears don't suit you."_

"_T, then…Please bring Ren with you."_

"_Nagi-chan, Ren is yours. It's your good luck charm. I made it just for you. I'm hoping that you can use it once you're bigger and strong enough to use it."_

"_B, but! You're leaving…on your own."_

"_I can take care of my own self, Nagi-chan. I would've taken you with me, but you belong here, in this New World. You have a duty to attend, remember?"_

"_Yes, exactly! You can't bring me, so you have to bring Ren with you in my place. Besides…you aren't the best fighter around, Gramps…"_

"_Well, yeah that's true, but—"_

"_Gramps, pretty please? Please, please, please?"_

"…_Nagi-chan…"_

"_Gramps, I beg of you…Please?"_

"_Hhhh… Alright. I'll bring Ren with me, but! Only if we exchange our good luck charm. It's only fair, yes? Now, this is my good luck charm."_

"_An earring?"_

"_This was your grandmother's, before she passed away. I've always kept it here, on my heart. Since you're a girl, you can wear it. Come, I'll put it on you."_

"_How does it look, Gramps?"_

"_Just perfect, dear. Just perfect. My, you're the splitting image of your mother when she's just your age. I can bet all my savings that your grandmother looked just like this when she was younger."_

"_Huhuhu does that mean I'll be marrying a swordsman?"_

"_Why swordsman?"_

"_Because you're a swordsman although you're officially a bladesmith, and so is Daddy, although he's officially a mechanic."_

"_Aah. Good point and observation. Hmph! Whoever wants your hands in marriage, he'll have to get MY approval first! Otherwise, over my dead body!"_

"_Gramps, you're being a drama-queen again. Everyone's looking at you now." _

"_They can look at me however they want, I don't care! C'mon, let's show them something to look at!" _

"_Kyahahahaha! Gramps, not your stubbles, not your stubbles!"_

"_Awww… I love you, Nagi-chan…"_

"_I love you also, Gramps. When you come back home, bring me some souvenirs, okay!"_

"_Sure. When I come back…"_

Now that she recalled that brief conversation that took place before her grandfather went out of the New World, she remembered the faraway look on his place. The way he said that 'when I come back', it was definitely in a manner that indirectly said 'it's unlikely that I'll come back, but in case I come back then I'll bring you souvenirs.' She had been so young back then, barely six-years-old, so she had not understood that gesture. If only she knew at that time…

_Gramps…_More tears flowed from her eyes and merged with the sea. She hugged the nodachi closer to her person, caressing the smooth scabbard. She remembered the time when she would sleep while hugging the sword after she had any nasty nightmares. Ren warded off nightmares; it was her personal dreamcatcher.

Nagisa allowed the ocean to suck her deeper into its bowel, into a world of darkness and silence. She still needed more time to mourn.

* * *

><p>Roughly half an hour after Trafalgar Law had stepped out of Shakky's Rip-Off Bar, Bepo found himself encountering a very huge dilemma.<p>

In front of him was Trafalgar Law, standing in his full glory with Ren in his hands, resting on his shoulder just like how he always did it. He looked at Bepo with his usual body language; languid and laid-back. His stormy grey-eyes were as calm and emotionless as usual. However, something about him was off, and Bepo couldn't really pinpoint what.

"How did you get Ren back, Captain?" Bepo asked unsurely.

"Negotiation with Miss Nagisa." Law answered curtly.

"Huh? But I was chasing after her all the time."

"You were chasing her double. Her clone. Now let's go back to the sub, Bepo." Law said as he took some steps towards the uncertain bear. Once he was within two metres area of Bepo's range of smell, the First-mate of the Heart Pirates snarled savagely and jumped a metre away from Trafalgar Law.

No. The imposter of Trafalgar Law.

The man that looked identical as Trafalgar Law frowned at Bepo's sudden actions.

"What do you think you are doing, Bepo?" He asked in irritation, very much like how his captain would say.

"Who are you?" The bear snarled with his claws raised up in his classical kung-fu stance.

"Bepo. This is no time for joke. My patience is already running thin as it is." The man scowled in a manner that was horrifyingly identical to that of Bepo's captain.

"You are not Captain! You smell different!" The bear retaliated.

"Bepo." The man said menacingly. "The first thing I'll be doing once we reach the sub is to give you a thorough examination on your olfactory systems."

At this, Bepo faltered. That sounded awfully like what his Captain would say.

The man took one step towards Bepo, and Bepo snapped. Without thinking further, Bepo launched a flying kick towards this man-who-looked-so-much-like-his-Captain while yelling his trademark "AIEEEE!" kung-fu yell. The man dodged the kick easily, and then—much to Bepo's horror—drew Ren.

A somersault managed to save Bepo from being skinned alive by that nodachi.

"See! You are not Captain! Captain never raises Ren against me!" Bepo yelled as he pointed an accusing paw at the man with Ren in his hand.

"Really, Bepo? _Really_?" The face of Trafalgar Law grinned wickedly and so evilly that the fur on Bepo's nape rose.

"Uh…yeah!" Bepo retaliated, but his voice was weaker than what he had intended to be. It sounded more like a squeak.

"I see." The man held the nodachi up and observed the blade with a fond look. "It's been a while since the last time I used Ren. Let's see how lousy I've become."

"W, wha—"

Bepo had to jump away before even finishing that one word because he had seen a glint of metal aiming for his tummy. More slashes came after him hungrily, like the flashes of fangs of hungry wolves. Bepo; while dodging for all he was worth and as his life technically and practically depended on it, noticed how the sword-fighting style that this imposter using was very much like his Captain's.

No. It looked so much more like the old master's.

The battle was decided pretty shortly. It ended when a figure that Bepo identified as the Nagisa girl sprung into his line of vision and knocked his leg just as he was dodging another slash from Ren. Bepo fell on his rear, and had the tip of Ren pointed right to his thick, furry neck. The Nagisa girl stood right next to the man who looked too much like his captain, looking down at him with blank expression. When Bepo looked up to the face that resembled Trafalgar Law, only then he noticed that the man's eyes had turned from the grey hue of his Captain's eyes to turquoise hue.

"I may not be the real Trafalgar Law." The man said at length. "But this is the real Ren."

And then, Bepo saw infinite darkness.

* * *

><p>Nagisa tore down her Trafalgar Law guise that she had created using her ninjutsu, and stared at the crumpled figure of the polar bear at her feet. She hadn't injured the bear; only knocked him out cold. She didn't have the heart of inflicting any sorts of wounds on the bear. Judging from the way he spoke of Ren, and even by the fact that he knew of the nodachi's name, it was highly likely that Bepo had personally known her grandfather. Besides, if Trafalgar Law indeed was her grandfather's disciple, then he would know better than spreading the nodachi's name to just anybody. That was one of her grandfather's quirky natures; he regarded names as something really important, even for swords. He would always say that swords had souls if they were treated with dignity and respect enough. Only those approved by the swords and the owners of the swords were given the privilege of knowing the name of the swords.<p>

Besides, the style of martial arts that Bepo was using earlier was of Kaigara Island martial arts style. He had to have learned it from her grandfather.

Nagisa crouched on the ground and touched the soil with one hand. The other hand moved in a complicated gesture while she recited:

"**Doton no Jutsu: Clones**."

Nagisa clones made out of earth rose from the ground. They then approached Bepo and lifted him up. With purposeful stride, Nagisa went to the direction of the Heart Pirates's submarine, with clones and Bepo in their arms following her dutifully.

It had taken her a good half an hour to calm her minds, hearts, and nerves, before she could think coherently about what she _had_ to do. Law had sounded sincere and truthful when he had claimed to be her grandfather's student. Even Shakky had said that he wasn't lying. Nagisa was going down to see the Captain of the Heart Pirates and hear what the man had to say about her grandfather's last words. If her grandfather had truly left Ren in his care, then all she could do was to respect his last with and gave Ren back to him—aggrieved as she would be.

_It's not fair…Ren is MY good luck charm. Why did Gramps give it to him?_ Nagisa asked to nobody in particular bitterly as she touched her shell-shaped earring with the tip of her fingers.

Once she had reached the harbour area, she stopped behind a gigantic Yarukiman tree. She turned to her entourage that consisted of her clones and an unconscious Bepo. She passed the nodachi to one of her clones, and then put enchantment of concealment on both the nodachi and the clone.

"**Kokuton no Jutsu: Chameleon.**"

The air surrounding the clone that was holding the nodachi suddenly quivered, and then their figure began thinning out until they were finally invisible to naked eyes. Once Nagisa was done with this, she turned and stepped out of the Yarukiman tree. She deliberately walked to the open space, instructed the clones to put Bepo on her feet, and then dismissed those clones in a wave of her hand—with the exception the clone holding to the nodachi. She then waited there, on top of an open hill near the harbour, until the crew noticed her presence.

Surprisingly enough, it took a rather long time until one of the men noticed her.

"It's her! It's the girl! Call Captain!"

"She has Bepo as hostage!"

_Finally_. Nagisa groused as she waited with arms crossed.

Soon enough, the figure of Trafalgar Law emerged unto the deck of the submarine. He stood on the deck for a while, his piercing stormy-grey eyes boring into Nagisa's turquoise eyes, before he jumped off the submarine onto the pier. He walked in long strides towards the hill where she was. When Nagisa saw that he was too close to her liking—i.e. a few metres before she was within the effect area of his bizarre Devil Fruit power—Nagisa took out the stolen scalpels that she had hidden within her sleeves and pointed it at Bepo's head.

Trafalgar Law stopped immediately.

"Hello, Mister Trafalgar." She said with soft voice. She wasn't in the mood of getting into heated arguments or verbal fights. She just wanted to get it over and done as soon as possible.

"Miss Nagisa." Law said with glacial tone. "I would appreciate it if you can point that scalpel somewhere else and not to my unconscious First-mate."

"Don't worry, he's uninjured, and I would likewise appreciate it if we can have a neutral discussion somewhere private without the need of hostages." She countered, and added wearily: "Which is not anywhere in your submarine."

Law regarded her with long hard look, and she tried to take it in strides. She could see that he was looking for Ren all over the place.

"The nodachi is with me, hidden somewhere you can't find or see. Comply with my humble requests, good captain, and it will be returned to you without further ado." She said with a sigh. She was really, _really_ tired.

"And how do I trust your words?"

Again, Nagisa sighed.

"It's up to you whether you want to believe me or not. If you don't wish to comply, I can just go and take Ren with me, though I'll still leave your First-mate here. My weapons you have hidden in your submarine are ultimately expendable in comparison with Ren." Her jaded gaze took the full extent of the North Blue native's glare. She had noted how the man had twitched when she had deliberately spelled out the nodachi's name.

"I find it hard to believe that you'll give up your self-proclaimed family heirloom so easily without much fight." There was acute scepticism in the 'Surgeon of Death's voice, and Nagisa felt that perhaps that scepticism was something that had helped his crew survived Grand Line thus far.

"If you are really my grandfather's disciple, you'll know that Ren is in fact not a family heirloom." She said softly. Oh, dear Trinity, let this be done quickly.

Trafalgar Law gave her another round of long hard look, before he turned and said something in low voice to his men. One of them then scurried back inside the sub, while the 'Surgeon of Death' remained where he was. Nagisa smiled in relief when she saw the man coming out of the submarine with a bundle in his arms. She could sense what was inside the bundle; her weapons. She watched with quiet satisfaction as Trafalgar Law took the bundle in his hands and then shooed the men back into the submarine. Once the place was cleared of the Heart Pirates, Trafalgar Law spoke.

"Is this to your satisfaction, Miss Nagisa?" There was obvious irritation in his voice, but Nagisa ignored it.

"Perfect." She gave him a tired smile. "Please come up here, Mister Trafalgar, and we can have our discussion peacefully. It is rather uncomfortable for the both of us to have our discussion while I'm up here and you're down there. It isn't an order, just a suggestion. Feel free to ignore it."

Nagisa watched as Trafalgar Law began walking up the hill towards her direction, with his eyes glued on her. Deciding that she ought to give him more incentives to cooperate with her, Nagisa moved away from Bepo, allowing Law to get near his First-mate. Law raised both eyebrows at this, but he remained silent. Nagisa kept walking backwards until she was sure she was in a range that; should Trafalgar Law tried to capture her using his Devil Fruit power, she could still throw the scalpel fast enough to distract him and get away.

Oh, Trinity gave her strength. She was just so tired…

* * *

><p>Law had always hated being ordered around. It was a nature that he had garnered from life of constant oppression under his parents. He had learned how to stand up for himself when the old man had come into his life; when he had become his teacher. Since he first tasted the first freedom from the clutch of his proud parents, he had sworn that nobody would ever order him around to do anything that he did not want. The only people he tolerated would be the old master and Bepo; seeing that the old master was simply his teacher and thus was giving instructions in his training—in the first place, he had never ordered Law around to do something for him that was unrelated to trainings—and that Bepo was simply, well, Bepo.<p>

Presently, while Miss Nagisa hadn't been ordering him per se, she had been making demands at him. However, as much as Law hated to admit it, her demands had been pretty reasonable. Plus, she seemed bone-tired with the whole ordeal—she had sighed an awfully lot. It was as if she was already standing on her last legs while doing this negotiation with him. It was as if she just wanted to bolt out of the scene and went somewhere else peaceful and just went into a deep, dreamless sleep. It was as if she hadn't had any other choices.

Besides, Law himself had some things he needed to ask out of her. She wanted to do it in civilised manner, even to the extent of releasing the hostage first to emphasise her point. Fine, Law would accept the call for truce.

Once they had both seated themselves on the grassy ground, Miss Nagisa began:

"First of all, let me properly introduced myself: I'm Sōhaku D. Nagisa, granddaughter of Sōhaku D. Isora. A…" she paused, and added slowly "…stealth agent by profession."

"Trafalgar Law, disciple of Sōhaku D. Isora. Captain and Doctor of the Heart Pirates." Law replied curtly, and asked before she had the chance to talk further: "And if I may ask first, what do you mean with stealth agent? Are you an agent of one of the Cipher Pol of the World Government?"

Miss Nagisa gave a very much undignified snort of indignation.

"Don't lump us together with those Dogs of Government." She said harshly. "We are agents that are unique to my home island. I will be very much obliged if we can keep the topic of my profession to the side since it has nothing to do with our present circumstances."

"Oh, I beg to differ, Miss Nagisa." Law said with a smirk. "In fact, for me it explains a great deal why you have such unusual abilities."

Miss Nagisa stared at him with a look of exasperation that Law enjoyed seeing.

"Fine. Fair enough. However, no more questions regarding my profession. My comrade and I are sworn not to tell anyone about our professions." She said firmly.

"Very well." Law nodded. He could dig out information about it later in his free time. "Now, down to our real business." Law had sat down cross-legged and he interlaced his fingers as he leaned forward slightly. "What is it that you wish to discuss, Miss Nagisa?"

"…About my grandfather."

"Yes. What of him?"

"If I may ask first, how long was the time you spent with him?"

"…Nine years. About two months after he had reached my hometown, he took me in as disciple." Law generally supplied for her.

"I see." Miss Nagisa murmured, and—to Law's surprise—she closed her eyes when she asked the next question: "When did he pass away?"

"Two years ago, due to heart failure."

"Were you…already a doctor at that time?"

"Yes."

"And you didn't notice the symptoms until it was too late?" There was bubbling anger in her voice, and Law could understand it.

"…I did. My hometown didn't possess the necessary technology to cure him, and he wouldn't let me off to get the technology from somewhere else."

It was a few long seconds before he girl responded with a very quiet "I see..."

Law honestly was surprised that the girl didn't go into nervous, tearful breakdown like he had seen other females did. She looked—and really _was_—too young to be one of those toughened-up female warriors, but then again she was already an active agent. That had to be a testimony on how strong the girl really was. Besides, her grandfather had repeatedly told him that she had undergone hell—which he suspected was that slavery under Tenryuubito.

"Where do you come from, Miss Nagisa?"

"…Kaigara Island of Wano Country." She whispered reluctantly.

"You are a native of the New World?" Law's eyes widened and he blanched.

"So was Gramps. He didn't tell you?"

"No." Law felt giddy. "No, he didn't tell me about it. But now it makes sense…"

"What does?" The girl asked with a frown.

"His heart failure. It wasn't like anything that I've seen in North Blue, or in this part of Grand Line, for that matter. Along my journey from North Blue until here, I still didn't see a variety of heart failure like his case. It would seem that it was unique to the New World." Law took off his furry hat and combed his black hair with his hands. "Shit. That damn old man…"

"You could've asked—" Miss Nagisa hissed, but Law interrupted harshly.

"I've asked, but he wouldn't tell." He snapped at her impatiently, and added with softer voice: "And even if I had known back then that it was a disease from the New World, there was still nothing I could do. Even if we had sailed to the New World, we still wouldn't make it. Not with his conditions, not with my inexperience."

Law was a pragmatic realist, but two years ago he hadn't been one.

"Gramps knew…that if I were to know that it was a New World disease, I would've sailed to the New World. That would be like sailing to my own death. He knew. He might be a senile old man from time to time, but he was absolutely not a fool. That's why he never told me that he was from New World. He knew he was suffering from heart failure since the very beginning, even when he first set foot on my hometown. He knew he was dying. Slowly but surely."

Law stared at the ground before him. Why had the old man taken him in as disciple then? Wasn't that the same as shortening his own life; with all the exertions that he did while training him and Bepo?

"One more question, Mister Trafalgar."

Law looked up, and saw how the girl's feature seemed to have turned into something extremely fragile. It felt like…a melting glass.

"What did he say in his deathbed?"

Law stared into those turquoise eyes, and he could only see an ocean of tears.

"…He said—"

A gust of wind blew around the harbour. While the words coming out softly from Law's mouth seemed to have been carried away by the wind, from the expression of the girl sitting across him Law knew that she had heard his words—her grandfather's last words that he had quoted down to the last letter. When the wind died down, a pin-drop silence reigned.

Both of them were quiet for a while. They were both looking into each other's eyes; Law observing her reaction and she…well, Law didn't know what was going on in her head. She couldn't read her expression; it was blank.

It was blank until a rivulet of warm liquid dropped across her chalk-pale cheek.

Law held his breath. The girl's expression was still blank. Her mouth was slightly open, revealing a neat row of white pearly teeth. Her shoulders were sagged and her eyes were half-lidded as if she was sleepy. Her fists were loosely balled on her lap. Her silky hair swayed weakly as the salty ocean wind caressed her. When analysed individually, those separate elements weren't much. However, when Law was faced with her expression and body language as a whole, he then understood his late old master's words.

"_If you've seen her face at that time, you wouldn't' be able to refuse her request either. Her…sincerity…is nothing something you can just dismiss."_

Even as Miss Nagisa got up from her spot and walked towards him, he still held his breath and did nothing else. He didn't pay attention when the nodachi Ren was suddenly conjured out of thin air in the girl's hands. He barely noticed when the girl gently put the scalpels she had stolen from him on the grass in front of him, by his feet. He kept his gaze on her visage even as she knelt in front of him with Ren in her hands, held like a vassal offering a tribute to the sworn lord.

"It is yours, Trafalgar Law." She said with quiet, solemn voice and glassy gem-like eyes. "You have been taking care of it extremely well. Thank you."

Law could only accept the nodachi in his hands mutely. He still said and did nothing as Miss Nagisa picked up the bundle that contained her weapons, and walked away. She never glanced back even for once.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Author's Note: <strong>__Okay, you can speculate all you want about the last words from Nagisa's grandfather in his deathbed. A bit too sappy? I don't know. I mean, imagine if you're in Nagisa's shoes. You love a family member very very much. He left, and there was no news about him. You set out to find him, only to hear that he's dead, leaving his treasure given to him from you in the hands of a complete stranger you despise, who turns out to be his last and only disciple and companion before his death? Not a pretty thing, huh?_

_REVIEWS, PLEASE! X_

_And college's murdering me inside out with the workload. Maya, oh, Maya..._


	8. Negotiation

_**Disclaimer: **_ _One Piece belongs to Eeichiro Oda-sensei and whatever else that has rights on it. This is for personal use and not for commercial use_

_**Story so far:**__ After the messy encounters between Nagisa and Trafalgar Law, they had finally settled a bit of the difference between them, grounded on the memories of Nagisa's late grandfather. How would things proceed now, what with the storm of war brewing not so far from Sabaody._

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 8<strong>

_**NEGOTIATION**_

* * *

><p>She knew that she had always had rotten luck, but this was just too cruel. Shortly after discovering that her grandfather had been dead for the past two years, she just had to hear of the news of Portgas D. Ace's upcoming execution. She hadn't heard anything before she came to Sabaody! She hadn't even heard the news of his capture. If a 'D' was to be captured, surely Meifeng and the others would have known and they would've informed her. After all, she would join their ranks any time soon—only that nobody; including herself, knew when it would happen—and she was another 'D', for Trinity's sake! She was entitled to know!<p>

On one of the branches of the Yarukiman tree that stood near the screen that broadcasted the live war going on in Marineford, Nagisa sat with her knees drawn to her chest and her arms around her bent legs, and her drawstring bag slung on her back. Her eyes were fixed on the screen, hoping that she had the power that transcends over space and time—like the ones the Trinity possessed—and turned those Marines into smouldering pieces of coals or any other gruesome things she could think of. How she hated the World Government. How she hated the Tenryuubito. How she hated the Marines.

If only her power had awakened...

But then again, if that happened then she wouldn't be allowed outside of the New World. She would have to stay within the water of the New World forever.

Due to her profession, Nagisa had seen plenty of battlefield and bloodshed. She was unfazed with the sight of blood, no matter how grotesque the way it was shed, or the sheer quantity of the gore. That was not what disturbed her as she gazed to the gigantic screen that broadcasted the war in Marineford. The sight of pirates and Marines falling to their deaths or injured beyond repairs also didn't shake her nerves at the very least bit.

It was the sight of Ace.

The fire-user was chained pitifully on the executing platform while witnessing his brethren falling one by one, all for his sake. It might be a broadcast from a den-den-mushi; not the real thing, but still Nagisa could see in Ace's eyes how much the sight tore through his heart. It was especially evident when Monkey D. Luffy made his couldn't-be-less-grander appearance into the battlefield, accompanied by a shipful of inmates from Impel Down. Nagisa hoped fervently to the Trinity that she could just be magically transported there and cut down anyone who dared interfere with Luffy as he made his way to the execution platform. Better yet, she hoped she could just go to where Ace was, cut the Seastone cuffs, and set him free—after beating the life out of Monkey D. Garp first, of course.

Nagisa knew Ace on personal level. Like she had told Shakky, the Whitebeard Pirates had often come down to her island for the curative hot springs. Ace would then seek her out so that they could gallivant around the island pulling pranks on the unheeding pirates and villagers alike. It was one of the best parts of her days in Kaigara Island. Ace was dear to her, especially and most of all because he was a fellow 'D'—she considered him a brother, as she would do Luffy.

The broadcast then suddenly shifted focus from Ace to the other insignificant pirates that Nagisa hardly remembered. During this time, Nagisa decided to look around the clearing, to see if she recognised anyone among the crowds that were watching the gruesome butchery of pirates in the name of that bloody Absolute Justice shit.

Her eyes caught Eustass 'Captain' Kidd and his entourage gathering in one of the tall structures of the building around the broadcast area. She also saw 'The Glutton' Jewellery Bonney at the outskirt of the clearing, on one of the hills surrounding the area. She seemed close to tears, for one reason and another. There were also others Supernova—correction: all the Supernova and their respective crew were there, minus the Straw Hats.

All of the sudden a loud cry of protests and disappointment waved over the crowds sharply, making Nagisa looked up to the massive screen. To her horror, it was black.

"What happened to the Den-den-mushi?"

"What's going on?"

"Squard stabbed Whitebeard! He betrayed Whitebeard!"

"No, didn't he say that Whitebeard betray them?"

"Whitebeard sold his allies out to the Marines to save 'Fire Fist' Ace?"

"Why would Whitebeard do so much for the son of Gold Roger?"

Nagisa was seeing red; crimson, scarlet, blood red—all shades of red known to humankind. Squard stabbed old man Whitebeard because Admiral Akainu told him that Whitebeard had made an agreement with Sengoku?

_That imbecile! He should've known better than to listen to a Marine's words, let alone an Admiral!_ She growled in her heart as she rose to her feet. _How dare he injure the old man because of such pathetic lie! When I see him, the first thing I'm gonna do is to tear him from limbs to limbs, take his beating heart out and make him eat it himself!_

The cacophony below among the crowds was growing in intensity. Most of them were demanding to nobody in particular that the Den-den-mushi in Marineford was to be fixed so that they could continue watching that gruesome drama, but few made solid effort in watching the continuation of the war. Nagisa duly noted that most Supernova made their moves, though she didn't know whether they went to watch the war or to simply go off after having had enough of the farce that the Marines were putting up.

Her eyes caught sight of the Heart Pirates making their way out of the groves that held the massive broadcast screen. There was a high chance that Trafalgar Law would wish to sail to Marinford and stayed on the sides to watch the procession of the war, since he was the type who wouldn't miss this kind of incident if he could help it—Nagisa dared to bet her whole savings that he considered this kind of incident as entertaining.

Jumping from the branch of the Yarukiman Tree, Nagisa hopped her way from one branch to another closer to the Heart Pirates. When she was near them enough, she heard Trafalgar Law speaking—or rather, scoffing:

"Whitebeard sold out his allies? That's crap. He wouldn't do that. That's why he's a living legend. Let's set sail, Bepo!"

"Aye-aye, Captain!"

Well, that was enough incentive for her to approach Captain Psycho and…well…did some negotiations. Again.

* * *

><p>Trafalgar Law and his entourage had emerged from the clearing and were making a beeline for their submarine. Law was disgusted; how low could the Marines be? They had just hit it below the belt in the dirtiest way they could. He also had seen a glimpse of Straw Hat Luffy from the broadcast; he didn't seem to be doing so well despite the endless energy that was practically seething out of him. He had seen him down before, and that Ivankov of the Revolutionary Army had done something to him that made him stand on his two feet. Law was curious. Too curious. He couldn't be possibly missing this kind of spectacle.<p>

"Where are you going, Mister Trafalgar?" A sharp voice broke his train of thoughts—it sounded familiar enough.

Law stopped and turned around to look at the direction of one of the hills surrounding the harbour. There, standing as tall as she could—given her short stature—was Miss Nagisa. She had a neutral expression, and her body language was relaxed enough. On her back was a drawstring bag that he had never seen her carrying before.

"Oh, hello there, Bepo." She gave a small wave and a big grin at Bepo, which caused the latter to yelp and attempt to hide behind Law—which, of course, was an epic failure, given the bear's larger stature.

"It's none of your concern, Miss Nagisa." He said rather irritably at the New World native.

"Are you going to Marineford?" She ploughed on, still with the smile on her face.

Law frowned at this. She was being very, _very_ forward, and he had the feeling that it didn't exactly bid well for him. "…What makes you think so?

"Intuition." She shrugged noncommittally.

"Hmhm." Law gave her a very sceptical look.

"Honest. Besides, lemme ask you: do you know how to go to Marineford?"

"With submarine we can find other ways."

"I can navigate for you to Marineford without having to encounter any Marines on the way." She said as cheekily as she could.

"Have you been to Marineford, Miss Nagisa? I doubt that's the case." Unless a person is affiliated to the World Government or the Marines, it was highly improbable that he/she knew an 'unofficial' way—as implied by her words—to Marineford. The girl had denied any affiliated with the World Government in a very crude way, so her credibility in her statement was questionable.

"No, I haven't," she said while shaking her head, but the smile was still stubbornly there, "but you are forgetting that I'm from the New World, Mister Trafalgar. I swim in the seas of the New World. I can read the ocean currents. How do you think I could go back to Sabaody Archipelago alive and in one piece after ditching your submarine the other day?"

Now that explained it. But still…

"And why do you want to go to such dangerous place where there's war going on?"

If he was to make guesses, he would first guess that; considering her apparent loathing for the World Government, she wanted to join the fray just to spite the Marines. Or perhaps she was affiliated with the Whitebeard Pirates? He had heard that Whitebeard had gathered enormous fleets of allies from pirates and natives alike in the New World. Might she be one of them? Then again, if she had been a true ally, she would've gone together with Whitebeard himself and his fleets to Marineford instead of going in search of her grandfather.

"For Monkey D. Luffy and Portgas D. Ace."

"Oh?" Law raised an eyebrow at the girl; now this was interesting. "What is your connection with Mister Straw Hat and 'Fire Fist' Ace, Miss Nagisa?"

She seemed reluctant to answer for a while, but she did answer anyway: "We are fellow 'D's."

Law's jaw stiffened and he narrowed his eyes.

"_Law, when you go out to the sea out there, always look out for the carriers of the 'Will of D'."_

"Mister Trafalgar, we are wasting time here bantering one question after another. Allow me to board your submarine and let us be off to Marineford, and I will answer your questions accordingly. Fair?"

Law regarded the girl with unreadable eyes. It wasn't often that he encountered a girl—or a person, for that matter—that had this level of careful diplomacy. She was making demands, yes, but she had put it in such a way that it didn't exactly sting his ego. Not so much, anyway. True that she was pushing her luck and was practically pressing her request to him, but she had been rather reasonable to his liking. He could take advantage of that green light to question her freely; perhaps he could dig as much information as he wished from her about the New World.

And there was that 'Will of D' issue that she had indirectly brought up.

"Fair enough. But only if you swear that you will not harm my crew."

The 'Will of D'; the old master had mentioned it before, but hadn't elaborated. Perhaps he could get some decent explanation from the girl?

"Sure. As long as they don't try anything funny on me, though. You can't hold me responsible for acting on self-defence."

Well, she certainly knew her way in negotiating with people.

"Alright. You may come."

"Captain, no! She's dangerous!" Bepo whined from behind him. "She can do perfect disguise of you! She tricked me with that once!"

"Oh?" Law turned back to Miss Nagisa and regarded her with his trademark you-better-give-me-a-damn-good-explanation-for-that-one. Miss Nagisa scowled at this, as if annoyed that Bepo just had to remember that last bit. "Miss Nagisa—"

"**Kokuton no Jutsu: Copy.**"

Stunned was an understatement for Law. He was seeing an exact replica of himself; minus the nodachi, standing up there on the hill where Miss Nagisa had been standing a millisecond ago. The crew behind him was equally shocked as well, and they were being way more articulate and expressive with their shock. All of them looked on with held breath as the duplicate of the captain of the Heart Pirate ambled his way down the hill towards them—the way he walked was exactly the same!

"Convincing?" The duplicate asked Law as it stood right in front of him, mirroring his posture; the slight slouch, the hands in the pockets, the lazy smirk. His voice was also identical as the original one.

"Very much so." Law said in amusement. "But you are forbidden to do this while inside my submarine."

The copy suddenly frowned in displeasure.

"I do not take kindly in being ordered around, Mister Trafalgar."

"SOUNDS JUST LIKE CAPTAIN!" The crew said in an uproar.

"Miss Nagisa," Law's voice dropped a pitch as he narrowed his eyes into dangerous slits, "this is a very bad joke."

"Alright. My apology." The copy shrugged in the way that Law would've shrugged. It was unnerving. "And rest assured, Mister Trafalgar, I don't like disguising myself as a man, anyway. I won't be doing this any time soon."

With that, the form of Law's copy suddenly wavered and scattered; revealing the smaller-bodied Miss Nagisa in the middle. She gave him a huge grin that annoyed him, but she soon held up her hands in a peace-offering gesture as she sensed his mounting irritation.

"You will have a great deal to explain to me, Miss Nagisa."

"Fine, fine. Can we go, like, _now_?"

It didn't escape Law's observation that the girl seemed like she was eager to just bolt out of Sabaody Archipelago and charged head-on to Marineford. Tempted as Law was to question the girl just then and there, he was aware that time was running short. If they wanted to reach Marineford in time, then they had to rush.

"Everyone, get on board. We are setting sail!"

"AYE-AYE!"

All the crew then got into the submarine, with Law and Bepo the very last to enter the said vessel. Jean-Bart was having a rather hard time manoeuvring his gigantic body inside the rather cramped submarine; he had hit his head on the overhead pipes for a few times already. Miss Nagisa, surprisingly, was generous enough to keep pointing out the pipes above and below.

"Bepo, get Jean-Bart something proper to wear."

"Okay, Captain." Bepo replied in his monotonous voice, and then he trotted towards the towering man.

"Jean-Bart." Law called out at their latest addition to the crew. "Follow Bepo. Miss Nagisa, you come with me."

"Yes, Captain." The hulking man answered with calm voice; very unlike what a man of his appearance and size would normally talk.

"Come on, Jean-Bart! You are the newest here, so you are my subordinate!" Bepo said enthusiastically as he beckoned at the man to follow him down the corridor.

"Whatever, Bepo. I don't care."

Law noticed Miss Nagisa looking at Bepo with a kind of quizzical eyes. When the pair had disappeared in one of the turns of the corridor, Miss Nagisa turned to Law and pointed a thumb at the general direction of his First-mate.

"Self-esteem problem?"

"A bit. Bepo is very sensitive." Law chuckled, and then turned to the direction of the Control Room. "This way, Miss Nagisa."

They walked in agreeable silence as Law led the way. He noted how the girl walked very noiselessly, and her breath wasn't even audible. Law only knew that she was following him because of her presence behind him. It didn't seem that she was doing it on purpose; it appeared that it was already something inherent that had been in her flesh and blood. He supposed that it was from her training to become a stealth agent. What kind of stealth agent _exactly_, he had yet to find out. He could guess that the strange ability of her copying his features down to the voice was among one of the numerous skills related to that profession of hers.

"Miss Nagisa." And there was one more thing that he was curious about.

"Hm?"

"I suppose you haven't forgotten that I am a doctor? Don't you hate doctors?"

Miss Nagisa was quiet for a while. If she indeed had forgotten about it, now _that_ would indeed be hilarious. However, Miss Nagisa soon answered with smooth voice.

"No, I haven't forgotten that you are a doctor. I should just content myself that you are mostly acting as the captain and not as the doctor. Nonetheless, just remember that I swear to the Trinity that I'll kick your ass all the way to Impel Down if you dare subject me to any medical procedures for whatever excuses or reasons."

"Even if you are gravely injured?"

"I won't get gravely injured here in 'Paradise' Grand Line." Miss Nagisa scoffed.

"Anything can happen in a war zone."

"True, but you are not under any obligation to save me. If I get injured, just leave me be." She said curtly.

"Miss Nagisa," Law's voice turned gelid as he glared at her over his shoulder, "I do as I please. Do not order me around."

"Yeah, I know." She rolled her eyes. "Fine. Whatever. I've warned you, though. If I catch you doing any medical procedure on me, don't blame me for destroying your infirmary or attempting to squeeze the pirate life out of you."

"Duly noted." Law drawled as if disinterested, but he knew that her threat was real—her Seastone garment was his biggest enemy. He had also known just how vicious she could be when cornered. They continued walking, and she continued explaining herself.

"Anyhow, you are my best option to get to Marineford. There are others going to nearby Marineford as well, but I don't know any of them. With you, it's a win-win situation for both of us. You have submarine, but you don't know the safest way to reach Marineford. I don't have any means of transportation but I can navigate there—and I'm not talking about the outside of the Marineford here. I can navigate us to breach the walls surrounding Marineford. However, above all those, we've been acquaintance with each other—brief and…well…rather un-pretty as it was."

That was a very valid point. She had good reasoning in her head, that much Law had to credit her. Also, although he wouldn't admit it out loud or even show it outwardly, he listened to her because she was his late master's beloved granddaughter with unwavering loyalty and devotion for the old man. That alone had earned her a degree of respect in his view. Had she been some other person, he would've ignored her no matter how inviting the proposition was.

"By the way, Mister Trafalgar, was Bepo also Gramps' student?" Her voice and tone was surprisingly light and carefree when mentioning the old man, as if the news of his death hadn't affected her at the very least.

"Only in martial arts." Law paused, and then remarked: "You sound oddly perfectly fine, Miss Nagisa."

"What? You think I should still be wallowing in despair and go boo-hoo-hoo now? Crying my eyes out and tearing my hair off my scalp?" Miss Nagisa gave a light snort. "For your record, Mister Trafalgar, I am still sad but that doesn't mean I should wear my grief on my face for all to see."

"And Gramps said that you're a crybaby." He had muttered it under his breath; not intending for her to hear, but she still heard it—loud and clear.

"That was eleven years ago! And what did Gramps tell you about me?"

"All kinds of things. Ah, here we are. This is the Control Room, Miss Nagisa." Law said; effectively changing the topic of the conversation, as he pushed open the metal door and revealed the room with numerous dials and buttons on the control panel, and several screens on the wall. "So how do we go to Marineford now?"

"Tsch." She tut-tutted. Seemed like she noticed him changing the topic. "Hold on a sec." Miss Nagisa murmured in annoyance as she rummaged through her drawstring bag and finally pulled out a scrap of paper with burnt edges.

Miss Nagisa put down the paper on her small palm and observed it. To his surprise, Law saw the paper inching its way to the right side. Before Law could ask her what the paper was and why it was moving and what the significance of the direction it was moving towards was, Miss Nagisa had started giving out direction.

"Go ten degrees to starboard, and then just go straight from there."

The crew in the Control Room looked at Law with questioning eyes.

"Answer Miss Nagisa's questions for now, and follow her directions unless I say otherwise."

"Alright, Captain."

Miss Nagisa still kept her eyes glued to the paper as the men changed the course of the submarine. Once they were going in the direction that Miss Nagisa had pointed out, Miss Nagisa nodded in satisfaction and slipped the paper to beneath the black Seastone garment along her arm.

"Once you can see the walls surrounding Marineford, please let me know. Things will get tricky from there on." She then turned to Law. "Now, Mister Trafalgar, I believe you have some questions for me?"

Law almost couldn't resist the urge to stare at the girl wide-eyed and with eyebrows raised high. Normally people would avoid being questioned, unless it was about topics that were of utmost unimportance and of no consequence on their conscience or fragile self-esteem. Some just preferred being secretive, others were uncomfortable or even afraid of being exposed. They would always look for a chance to distract the 'interviewers' in order to make the latter forget about the questioning. Miss Nagisa actually brought up the subject herself.

"You are being very polite and accommodating. Very unnaturally so. Trying to get on my good side, Miss? Or are you simply patronising me?"

"Don't accuse me like that, Mister Trafalgar. It's just mannerism. I suppose it's the very same reason why a pirate like you is oddly polite. Gramps' teachings, yeah?"

Law tightened his jaws and pulled his lips into thin line. It wasn't like he disliked discussing about the late master, but they were currently in the Control Room; right in front of his crew and he knew that they were listening. Heck, he could practically see their ears strained to hear the on-going conversation that hinted so much on his past.

"I suppose it will take quite some time to reach the area of Marineford. Let's go to somewhere more comfortable for our discussion."

"Interrogation, you mean." The girl grinned cheekily at him.

Law glared at her, and she merely shrugged off the dirty look.

"This way, Miss." He said gelidly, and she skipped her way past him with that smug grin still plastered on her pale face; prompting Law to groan inwardly at the sight.

_She's going to be the death of me._

* * *

><p>The only reason why she had been explaining herself to him a great deal was because she needed to get in his favour and he seemed like the type who didn't like fishy people on-board his vessel. If he understood her reasoning, he wouldn't likely to be giving her too much hassle.<p>

Besides, she knew that he also was aware that they both couldn't possibly dismiss and disregard each other coldly as if they hadn't met before. The memories of Sohaku D. Isora inevitably bound them in the strangest way. Nagisa would never give up the memories of her dearest grandfather, and she was dead sure that Trafalgar Law would similarly never give up the memories of his late master. If what she had seen from him—in his reactions and responses to things pertaining to her grandfather—was anything to go by, the old man seemed to be a rather important figure in his life.

Oh, no, don't get her wrong. She wasn't taking advantage of his memories of her late grandfather. She wouldn't go as low as that, similarly as she believed that he wouldn't go that low on her; they wouldn't ever dream of defiling their memories of that dear old man. She had heard the stories behind that hulking giant Jean-Bart and how he came to join the Heart Pirates from Shakky—she still couldn't figure out how the older woman could know so many details on that. It would seem that he still had some shreds of honour that most pirates nowadays lacked. She would be counting on that.

And it hadn't escaped her observation that Trafalgar Law had been most reluctant to speak of her grandfather while in front of his crew. She wondered why.

Presently, they were inside the private room of the good captain (note the sarcasm, people?), with Mister Trafalgar sitting on his swivel chair and Nagisa herself sitting _seiza_-style. _Seiza_-style was the proper sitting in Wano Country; in which one had to sit upright with their legs underneath their thighs. The ankles were turned outward as the tops of the feet were flat on the floor and the big toes were overlapped, and with the buttocks resting between the inside of the ankles. This was the posture that had to be maintained especially in formal occasions. Though she didn't consider the present circumstances as formal, Nagisa had been trained to sit in this manner since very early—it was part of the hellish trainings to be a kunoichi—so she was just as comfortable sitting like that as Trafalgar Law sitting on his chair.

"Now," Mister Trafalgar started, "let's start with the explanation on how you can pull off those stunts."

"What stunts?"

"You copying my appearance down to my voice."

"Ah. That one." She raised her hands from her laps and crossed her arms. "Well, that's one of the techniques native to my home country, part of the skills set that my profession requires. Now, Mister Trafalgar, I can't give you the secrets of that technique because that'll break the rigid code of our arts. We sign an oath of secrecy and silence when we dedicate ourselves to learn the arts."

"Even at death threat?"

"We'll rather carry the secrets of our arts to our grave than to reveal it." She said with steely voice.

Nagisa hoped that Trafalgar Law would understand that sentiment; he was a sensible person; intellectual even, and not to mention that he was a swordsman to a certain extent. In spite all those, she knew that he was the type who pushed his luck at often times. For a change, Lady Luck was smiling at her and the 'Surgeon of Death' didn't pursue the matter anymore.

"Fair enough. To be frank, Miss Nagisa, for a moment I thought that you were a Devil Fruit user—"

"ME? Devil Fruit user? Oh, puh-leeeease!" She waved a dismissive hand rather rudely. "I wouldn't ever go near that fruit, if I can help it. I heard they taste like shit."

Partial truth, but Trafalgar Law didn't need to know more than that.

"I see." Law grinned. "It's true that they don't taste at the very least…delectable."

"Edible, you mean." She scoffed.

"If you say so, Miss Nagisa." Law reclined himself slightly on his chair. "Then again, I realised you're not a Devil Fruit user once you plunged head-first into the ocean. That will only be suicidal for us Devil Fruit users and you don't strike me as the suicidal type."

_Damn right I'm not. Unless my dignity and virginity are at stakes, that is._ Nagisa muttered inwardly, but this was not something that he needed to know.

"Now, if you would please tell me about the 'Will of D'?"

Now this was a bit tricky.

"Ummm well…to be honest, I'm not entirely sure of what it is all about myself. They say that the 'Will of D' will bring storms, or something along that line."

Nagisa could see the ominously visible frown on the young captain's forehead. He obviously wasn't pleased with the grand lack of explanation on that, and he had looked so intrigued by it, too. Well, she really couldn't help it. The knowledge of 'D' was something that was passed on from generations to generations, but it wasn't passed verbally or in writing; it was passed through their genes. The genes had the knowledge, and the knowledge would only reveal itself to her once her power had awakened.

"And how does that initiate your desire to save Mister Straw Hat and 'Fire Fist' Ace?"

"I simply consider those with 'D' in their names as a kind of family." Again, Nagisa shrugged. "How many people in this world that you know have 'D' in their names?"

"Is that all?"

…Damn Trafalgar Law and his sharp mind.

"I don't think you'll do the same for people like, say, Monkey D. Garp or Marshall D. Teach."

"Blackbeard is a disgrace to the 'Will of D'." Nagisa hissed venomously—more intense that she had intended. She wouldn't even acknowledge his true name.

"How so?"

"…I don't know."

Law frowned. "Miss Nagisa—"

"Honest! I mean, let's put it this way: there are people who piss you off even at the first time you see him or her, right? It's just like that. Instinctively I hate Blackbeard at first sight. No logical reason, really."

"That is not a very credible explanation." Law crossed his arms, obviously still unsatisfied with Nagisa's answer.

"Well, that's the only answer I have for you. You don't believe it, too bad for you." She shrugged.

"Very well." He gave her a hard look. "But I suggest you stop lying to me, Miss Nagisa."

"W, what? What lies?" She sputtered angrily.

"I don't believe that you will go to a war zone just because you consider those with the middle initial 'D' in their names as family."

"That's not a lie!"

"Half-truth, then?"

….Daaaaaaamn you, Trafalgar Law.

"Well?"

Nagisa sighed. He'd be the death of her.

"Fine, fine." She grumbled. "Ace and I know each other. He's been to my island for a few times, and we use to pull pranks on people together. He'd tell me tons of stories about his younger brother Luffy, and about how much he's so proud of him." Nagisa gave Law a dirty look. "And so I really DO consider Ace my brother. Luffy just comes in with the package, so to speak. So there! Happy now?"

"Quite so, Miss Nagisa." Captain Psycho grinned like the psycho he was. "You should've just answered my question straight forward like that."

"….jerk…" She mumbled, ignoring the unpleasant glare he was sending her way.

Law was silent for a while, seemingly digesting what Nagisa had said so far. Nagisa observed his expression; he looked cool and collected enough, and she could virtually see the gears clanking and moving in his minds. If Nagisa's intuition was correct, he seemed like the opportunist type who would try to turn all information he knew to his advantage. No doubt that he was storing those pieces of information for future use—though she didn't want to think just what kind horrible purposes they could be used for. He was a sadistic, opportunistic psycho, no doubt on that. Just what was Gramps thinking that he took in this kind of sadist as a student?

"Miss Nagisa."

Law suddenly looked up, and their eyes met. Nagisa had the feeling that she wouldn't like whatever he was going to say. She didn't like that look in his stormy-grey eyes.

"Join my crew."

There was silence. And then…

"HELL NO! ABSOLUTELY NOT!" She yelled without thinking.

Trafalgar Law's face suddenly darkened at her outburst as if they had been painted a darker shade of his skin tone. His eyes also froze all over, giving out chilling gaze. Nagisa braced that look bravely; she had received worse look than that. To emphasise her rejection, she crossed her arms and huffed her chest in the most deviant manner she could muster. They had a few minutes of glaring contest—or was it half an hour?—until Law broke the silence with a question that sounded more like a growl.

"Why not?"

"First of all, I'm a free soul. I don't want to be tied down to a single pirate crew. Second of all, I am well aware that this crew is an all-men crew. Like hell I'm going to be the only female here. Trinity knows what's going on in those dirty heads of your men. Thirdly—and most important of all—I am different from your average New World native. I belong to a certain group—and NO, I'm not telling you what group, I'm absolutely FORBIDDEN to tell anyone about this—that do not allow us girls to join any pirate crew for our lifetime."

"I do not accept your reasons." Law stubbornly stated.

"Heck care whether you accept them or not." Nagisa snorted as rudely as she could. "Look. My third reason is solid. If I break that rule imposed on me, I'll _die_."

At this, Law suddenly broke into a smug grin.

"I protect my crewmember well, Miss Nagisa."

"Aaargh! You don't understand!" She clawed at her face. "This isn't just some verbal or written rules like you have among your crews or even like that Absolute Justice that the bloody Marines are parading about. This is on a wholly different level! It's not like someone from the New World will send assassins or whatnots to eliminate me if they find out about me breaking the rule! Nooo! This rule is absolute! I can't break it! None of _us_ can! We break it, we forfeit our lives! This is the kind of rules where 'lightning bolts will strike me dead the instant I break the rule'!" Nagisa flailed her scrawny arms frantically, trying to emphasise just how desperately serious the consequence of breaking this particular rule was. "Oh, I know! You can even call it a curse, from your point of view."

"…A curse?" The 'Surgeon of Death's temper was subdued slightly, and his hardened expression mollified barely.

"Yes, yes, exactly that. I'm born with it. Can't help it." She put up a surrendering gesture, trying to imply that there was really nothing that could be done about it. Her fate was sealed. Full-stop.

"Can't it be removed?"

"Nope. Not a chance." She shook her head vigorously. Why couldn't just Captain Psycho get it over into that thick skull of his and be done with it? Augh! "Even if you kill me, when I'm reborn—if I do get reborn—I'll still be born with the same curse. It's grafted onto my soul."

"And how is that possible, Miss Nagisa?"

"Dunno. Wonders of the New World, I guess…" She muttered in a huff under her breath.

Actually, she knew why it was so. It was simply because she was born female with the middle initial D—they are destined to be something else once their true powers were awakened. The laymen called them witches, although that wasn't their true vocation. They were something else, above those vulgar witches. They originated from the ancient times. Nagisa couldn't tell him even if she wanted to—not that she _wanted_ to, anyway.

"Is it you, or is it your entire family?"

Geez. This guy just knew how to ask his questions.

"…My family."

"And why is that?"

"I dunno. Ask my parents." She snapped, her patience running thin with his incessant, prodding questioning.

"Your mood has suddenly turned sour, Miss Nagisa." Trafalgar Law said in his ever-oh-so-clinical manner of a doctor.

"Gee, thanks for pointing out the obvious." She rolled her eyes.

"And you've become rude. Is this a sensitive topic, Miss Nagisa?"

"More like a taboo subject." She scowled as heavily as she could.

"Is it, now?" That smug bastard didn't show even an ounce of remorse for making her feel uncomfortable with all the questionings. Crazy psycho. "Why is it a taboo subject?"

Nagisa could hardly believe her hearing. Seriously?

"That is a _stupid _question." She declared with incredulous look.

Which was a wrong thing to do, since Captain Psycho suddenly gave a very much murderous look directed right at her pretty little face. Nagisa had seen her fair share of people with murderous, nasty, malicious—you name it—look, but none of them beat Trafalgar Law's look right now: it was sadistic in a very sick way. He looked like he could disembowel a person without anaesthesia on the spot while sporting that irritating smug grin of his.

_And why-oh-why again did you take in this psycho as your student, Gramps?_

"Look here. You: North Blue. Me: the New World. Different country, different continent, different sea, different _cultures_. Yeah? How am I supposed to bloody know why certain subjects are taboo? They just ARE! If you want to know that badly, YOU go and ask my ancestors! That said, let's just drop this topic here and now, alright?"

Okay, to be fair she could've said it in a nice, pretty way, but Captain Psycho was really getting to her nerves! Oh, screw it if he decided to turn against her and tried to kill her. She could handle him no-hassle-whatsoever. She was born and raised in the New World; she was trained on how to kill efficiently since she was a wee toddler. What could a man raised as a doctor do against her; a professional assassin/spy/arsonist/et cetera? He could do naught on her unless he strapped her onto a surgery table—provided he could catch her in the first place. Dude was even a Devil Fruit user; a bonus for her. She could just slam her body onto his and voila! He would be down in a flash.

In any case, her crude manner wasn't helping her situation. The 'Surgeon of Death' looked royally pissed off now.

"Miss Nagisa. Do not speak to me in that manner again."

"So what? You irritate me, and I do as I please. I'm not your crewmember, so beat it. I'm not following your order, you prick." She spat.

Oh, dear Trinity. This whole interview thing had spiralled down from smooth to disastrous. How did it end up like this? She had thought that the interrogation would be a breeze, but nooooo! She was born under the star of disasters and rotten luck!

"Miss Nagisa, for the last time—" Trafalgar Law flicked the hand-guard of his nodachi with his thumb, revealing a bit of the gleaming blade in a menacing jerk.

"Oho? Using Ren on me, now?" She interjected mockingly. "You should not swing that nodachi to me, Mister Trafalgar. You haven't known her half as I do."

This time, Trafalgar Law bared his teeth in a feral manner. Oops, seemed like he was furious. Still, Nagisa was just as equally furious as he was. This cad just didn't know when to stop!

And speaking of Ren, she was being truthful. The nodachi might have been forged by her grandfather; so he was the first person to bond with the sword, and it might have been passed down to Trafalgar Law by the bladesmith in his deathbed, but ultimately Ren had been forged for _her_. It was meant to be hers, and Ren evidently still remembered her. Nagisa could still hear her humming. Ren wouldn't betray her—the true master. If Trafalgar Law had indeed mastered Ren, he would notice it as well. He would know using Ren on her would be futile; the same as trying to cut paper with the blunt end of a knife.

It didn't escape Nagisa's keen kunoichi eyes that Trafalgar Law looked somewhat cornered by her crass threatening statement. It looked like she had hit a sore spot.

* * *

><p>He hated it how her one statement had driven him vulnerable in the inside.<p>

"_You haven't known her half as I do."_

There was some semblance of truth in that sentence, and Law wasn't an ignorant fool to dismiss that. It echoed to his wondering why the nodachi didn't respond to him as well as she did to the old master. Did Ren respond to Miss Nagisa better than she did to him, as well? Suddenly, Law felt a scintilla of despair at the furthest corner of his heart.

Did Ren really disapprove of him?

Law was so preoccupied with his swirling thoughts that he didn't notice the girl sitting on the floor squirming and shifting uneasily. She fidgeted with her fingers while looking at his face with slight apprehension. Law didn't see the shade of remorse on that childish face.

**[Captain, we can see the walls of Marineford.]**

From the corner of his eyes, Law could see how the crackling sound of the announcement had startled her mildly. Law was used to sudden announcements like that, so he kept his eyes trained on her. After a while there was no sight of more announcements, so Miss Nagisa lowered her eyes until they met with his stormy-grey ones. They locked eyes for a minute or so, before Law finally stood up.

"Come," was all he said.

From the corner of his eyes he saw Miss Nagisa nodding solemnly before she got up. They walked back towards the Control Room in not-so-agreeable silence, with Law in the lead. He was still pondering over Miss Nagisa's earlier words about the nodachi, and he couldn't shake off the desire to see with his own eyes if Ren really responded to Miss Nagisa or not.

When they reached the Control Room, most men turned to address their captain. A handful of them threw uncertain looks at the guest, though; which was understandable. Law hardly brought any outsiders into his submarine. He understood that unlike normal pirate ships out there, a submarine was rather delicate. There were a lot of trinkets inside the submarine that could jeopardise their lives if they were to be tampered with.

Law noticed how Miss Nagisa behaved in the room in the manner that suggested that she had been inside a submarine before. It made Law wondered just how many pirate crews out there that used a submarine like he did. Her eyes were fixed on the screen that had the underwater image of the walls of Marineford. On the screen, the ocean bed stretched to the horizon, where it was stopped by a grey mass of something that stretched seemingly indefinitely both sideways and up. That was definitely a massive, gigantic wall.

"Excuse me," Miss Nagisa murmured as she walked over to that particular screen. She leaned forward and squinted as if trying to take in some invisible details from the screen. Law didn't know if she could get anything from that imager. All that he saw was dark, cold blue.

Law stood leaning against the metal wall of the Control Room, his eyes observing the New World native's movements. All she did was staring at the screen. He really didn't understand how she could read the deep-sea currents from _that_ only.

"Tsch. Not enough." Miss Nagisa murmured, reflecting Law's own wonderment. She straightened up, closed her eyes, and interlaced her fingers into a pattern. "**Suiton no Justu: Third Eyes.**"

Law could feel a kind of energy emitting from her body the moment she said those words. She was obviously performing one of those techniques of her profession. He wondered if that energy was one of the keys of the techniques. While he didn't know what this particular technique—or any of them, in this matter—was for, the whole concept was certainly intriguing.

"Alright, go ten degrees to the port for now."

"For now?" One of the men blurted out.

"I'll explain later. Just keep going first for now."

"A, alright."

The submarine swam forward in the direction that Miss Nagisa had indicated. After a long while, she spoke again.

"Ah. Turn five degrees to starboard. Alright. You can just go straight and you'll see a hole on the wall. It'll help if you can dive further down. If you can go as low as to the abyssal plain, it'll be good."

Law raised an eyebrow. She sure knew her vocabularies regarding oceanography. She opened her eyes and relaxed her stance, before she turned around to face the men in general.

"Now, explanation time. The deep-sea currents don't go straight. They curve unpredictably. It's possible for submarine to go against sea currents but that'll be a waste of fuel and power. So, it'll be much more efficient to just ride the current. That's why I directed you along the current."

"Oooooh." Came the astonished response from the audience—minus Law, of course, although he was just as impressed by her knowledge.

"Also, the walls surrounding Marineford can't be solid, hole-less slab of walls." She continued. "They have openings here and there to allow the deep-sea currents to flow through, and they should be big enough to fit a submarine this size. Deep-sea currents are mighty strong. A solid hole-less wall won't last long against the sheer force."

"I see. That makes sense." Law nodded with a small smirk. "And how do you know all that?"

"Um…" Miss Nagisa gave an uneasy squirm; clearly she was still feeling uncomfortable with him, evidently as the result of their disastrous interrogation session earlier. "Logic and prior knowledge? I was taught all these things about oceans from veteran pirates who docked on my home island."

"Interesting." Law's smirk grew wider.

He wanted this girl in his crew, really. She was far too useful to be left free after this. Law didn't really believe that 'magical' reason of her being unable to join any pirate crew, but he wouldn't risk it. The girl didn't seem like she was telling lies, and Law had yet to see the extent of the quirkiness of things from the New World. She had said that it was a rule that was more like a curse. Law frowned slightly, but his lips formed a faint lopsided smirk.

Rules usually had certain conditions and loopholes. He would find them, and he would turn them to his advantages.

What Trafalgar Law wanted, he would get it. He was, after all, a pirate.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Author's Note: <strong>__The classic statement: join my crew. Phah. Although I know this line is overused, it just doesn't make sense if Trafalgar Law didn't want to recruit a New World native like her. I mean, it's kind of like a head-start for him, and Law is obviously a very opportunistic person._

_Again, I beseech ye. Reviews, anyone?_


	9. Surviving Marineford

_**Disclaimer: **_ _One Piece belongs to Eeichiro Oda-sensei and whatever else that has rights on it. This is for personal use and not for commercial use_

_**Story so far:**__ Despite herself, Nagisa struck a deal with Trafalgar Law of the Heart Pirates; that they would help each other to reach Marineford safely. With their own goals in their minds, they set off together. What would things go?_

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 9<strong>

_**SURVIVING MARINEFORD**_

* * *

><p>Miss Nagisa didn't strike him as the 'damsel in distress' type, no matter what kind of perils she was stuck in. She seemed like the type to suck it, kicked some unfortunate butts that just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and got on with it. She was definitely not the type to shriek and babble like a baby.<p>

But here she was, at the verge of doing just that.

"What is wrong with you now?" Law asked irritably. Her shriek had almost sent some of his men into catatonic state.

He was answered with some words stumbling out of her mouth that he didn't understand. He knew that she was probably speaking in her native language, and he had the good sense to guess that they were all vulgar expletives, judging from the way she spat them with vehemence. She had dropped to the floor, sitting on the cold metal floor with open palm raised. There were bits of ashes on her palm; seemingly like ashes from a burnt paper.

"Fuck you, World Government!" She hissed as she clenched her open fist and pressed it to her face. "Curse you all, Marines! Trinity damn you all. You will all die a horrid death, I swear on my ancestors!"

"Miss Nagisa." He questioned her. No, scratch that. It was an order. "What is wrong?"

She looked up and glared at him, as if aggrieved that he even asked that.

"They murdered Ace!"

"Murder?" Now that was a very interesting word that she had used.

Murder was considered a killing with malice aforethought, with the knowledge on the part of the murderer that his actions would result in death and disorder in the societies or the communities where the murder occurred. 'Murder' was something that was usually associated with pirates nowadays, and other criminals of that sort of profession. It wasn't a word associated with a body of justice like the Marines.

"Murder, Miss Nagisa?" Law repeated, trying to get her full attention. "Are you implying something?"

She ignored him.

"Dammit it all! When I get my hands on them, I'm gonna rip them limbs to limbs and tear their innards out and feed them to the Sea Kings. Every. Flipping. Single. One. Of. Them." She all but growled.

Law raised an eyebrow. For someone who had quite a nasty trauma with doctors and scientists and surgeons—being a guinea pig that had been cut open, had her insides messed up, and then had been stitched back again like a doll—she sure was fine talking about it. Cutting someone up and messing with their insides, that was. She didn't shy from that topic, and Law was inclined to suspect that she had _really_ done the deed at least once before. Well, there was the consideration of her being an agent with specialisation on assassination and espionage, but Law didn't think that assassins would usually torture someone to their grotesque deaths. Death by the hands of an assassin was usually swift—though not always clean.

Oh, and there was one question that he just had to ask.

"Miss Nagisa, how did you know that 'Fire Fist' Ace has died?" He wouldn't accept it if she said 'intuition' again.

"His Vivre Card burned out." She answered while biting her lower lips when her fury had receded slightly.

"Vivre Card?"

"Oh, right. They don't have such things in 'Paradise' Grand Line." She 'tsch'-ed but nonetheless dutifully explained about it to Law and whoever else was willing to listen to her. "Vivre Card is a scrap of paper manufactured in a shop in the New World from a piece of your nail. It will always point to the direction of the owner of that Vivre Card, and the state of the Vivre Card represents the life-force of the owner. It can't be destroyed unless the owner itself died."

"Interesting." Law muttered to himself as he nodded his head slightly. That was indeed a very interesting piece. When he went to the New World, he had to visit this shop.

"It's very useful, at the very least." She murmured distractedly while looking down to the metallic floor.

"So I assume you've used this Vivre Card to point us to the general direction of 'Fire Fist' Ace?"

"Yeah…" She muttered while hugging her knees and placing her chin on the stump of her knees with a distant look. She looked so small when she did that. "I don't know how Luffy will react to this. From Ace's story, they seem to be really close to each other. He's even gone as far as breaking into Impel Down to rescue him, and then go all the way to Marineford. Now that his efforts are in vain, I wonder…" She didn't dare to finish her own words. Her speculations were all ominously grave.

"He'll probably have a mental breakdown." Law said after a while. "If they are very close, and after such enormous efforts, I doubt that Mister Straw-Hat will forgive himself. He's that kind of guy, after all."

That was the impression that he had gleaned from the insane captain of the Straw Hat Pirates, the one with the second highest bounty among the Supernova with credits acquired from messing with the World Government. Busting into Enies Lobby, burning down the Government Flag in open declaration of war, defeating the entire force of the feared CP9, escaping a national-strong Buster Call, attacking _a family_ of Tenryuubito—they were insane deeds done only by someone who was either mentally unsound or just irrevocably moronic. Mister Straw-hat was probably both. He seemed like the type who didn't give a shit about the world aside from his nakama and his dream. For a man of his kind, a failure of saving a brother in front of his own eyes was probably the biggest blow he could ever receive, notwithstanding all his boasted strength.

"When it comes to that, he won't have any will to fight. Considering that he's the little brother of 'Fire Fist' Ace, there's a chance that the Whitebeard Pirates might cover for him so he might still be alive now." Law continued his deduction with cool voice. "Though I have to wonder just how damaged he is right now, physically and mentally. Not to mention emotionally and psychologically."

"You pscyho freak…" Miss Nagisa muttered with a grimace.

"I am the 'Surgeon of Death', Miss Nagisa. I didn't magically earn my reputation out of nothing." He gave her his special brand of a sadistic gleeful smirk; which grew even wider when he saw her flinching ever so slightly.

"Watch it. You dare mess with me with your medical shits, I'll break your fingers one by one in the most painful method I know and believe me, I'm really GOOD at it." She snarled as she disentangled her knees; seemingly readying herself to lunge at his throat when the need arose.

"Do not order me, Miss Nagisa. Otherwise, I'll feel more inclined to do exactly the opposite of your warning." He said with completely calm yet sinister voice.

"Try me." She hissed as she glared hatefully at him.

"Oh?" He raised a hand in preparation for his Devil Fruit power.

Tension escalated in the Control Room, causing some of the men to break some cold sweats. They would love to just scarper from the place and took no part of their fights, but woe and alas their station was the Control Room and if they dared ditching their posts without the captain's permission during non-emergency time, that would be the same as risking having their limbs literally chopped up and assembled in all sort of embarrassing places.

"Come on, Captain. Don't fight inside the sub. We can't afford to damage the sub…" Penguin finally stepped in with his hands raised in placating manner for both persons.

"Do I give a rat's ass about this sub or your nakama's fate? No." She spat at Penguin. "Even if this sub drowns here, I can still escape without any problems. I've had practice."

"Miss Nagisa, I'm warning you. Pose a threat to my crew and I'll disassemble your body while you're wide awake without anaesthesia." Law growled. He didn't like how this girl was acting all cocky about her capabilities. He didn't like how she was dismissing his crew as if they weren't worth shit to her. He didn't like how she regarded herself as their superior. A New World native or not, his late master's granddaughter or not, Law was pissed off at her. Big time.

"Ooh, your threat's getting wilder now, huh?" Miss Nagisa sneered disdainfully. "I hope you're not all bark no bite."

"Both of you, _please!_" Penguin suddenly begged desperately. He then turned sharply to Miss Nagisa. "And you! Would you please STOP provoking the Captain?"

Miss Nagisa blinked. Law stared at the back of Penguin's head with a raised eyebrow. Suddenly, from the periphery of his vision Law saw Miss Nagisa smiling so broadly it made him flinch.

"Okay. Sure."

And there was silence.

"THAT'S ALL?" Some of the men sweat-dropped, some face-palmed, others tripped on their own feet and kissed the floor. Veins throbbed on Law's temple as he scowled at the girl who had the galls to toy with him. He had never seen a girl so insolent like she was. This girl was grating on his nerves!

"Aaaah, this place is so damn cramped! I'm getting a tour around the sub." She suddenly declared as she sprung to her feet and threw her hands ceiling-wards; effectively surprising Penguin who was standing nearest to her.

"You are not wandering around the sub on your own." Law said snappishly. The girl had told him herself that she had been trained in the arts of assassination and arson; which implied that she had been taught other tricks similar to those arts. She could've been taught how to tinker with machinery, for all he knew. No, Law wasn't a fool.

"Spoil-sport." She tut-tutted and crossed her arms. "Alright. I'll take him along with me as insurance. C'mon!"

Her unfortunate victim turned out to be Bepo. For some reasons, Law wasn't surprised by her choice of victim. Perhaps because he had seen Bepo showing signs of fearing the girl and he had the hunch that Miss Nagisa was exactly the type who would tease the life out of anyone by doing something that the victim particularly disliked or feared. She was the type who gloated at other's misery when she was pulling their legs in the most inconceivably cruel way. She would prank someone to death if she could help it; he just knew it.

Bepo did look like he could shrink into nothingness when Miss Nagisa latched her dainty slim arms around his larger arm like vines.

The rest of the crew that were present there looked on as Bepo kept muttering unneeded and undue apologies to the New World native, while the latter was obviously enjoying herself while batting away those apologies while dragging the unreasonably apologetic and reasonably downtrodden bear down the corridors of the submarine.

"….She'll be the death of us…" Penguin muttered as he dragged a hand down his face.

_My sentiment exactly_, Law couldn't disagree more. Suddenly, the prospect of her joining his crew wasn't as delicious as first perceived. Sure that she was entertaining him, but that factor was overwhelmed by the fact that she was sucking the life out of him by constantly pissing him off.

* * *

><p>The tour around the submarine had been pretty short, and Nagisa actually wasn't really excited about the submarine itself. She had seen plenty of submarines before. Her uncle in the New World was an engineer, and he opened a shop that dealt with machineries; submarines included. Sometimes she would play there and learned a thing or two about tinkering with machineries. She had used that time to get a talk with Bepo semi-privately, to dig out more things about the time her grandfather had spent in North Blue.<p>

It was very _very_ hard to coax Bepo into telling her anything about the past at all. He explicitly said that Captain Psycho didn't like telling people about his past life, for a reason that it was something personal that he wished to keep to himself. A personal treasure of some sort, Nagisa decided. Well, that was pretty sweet of him.

All in all, it seemed like her Gramps had become like a parental figure for both Bepo and Captain Psycho. From what little Bepo told her, Captain Psycho had his own family but had preferred to stay with her grandfather for reasons that he wouldn't disclose—notwithstanding Nagisa's threat of skinning him alive and turning his pelt into her winter robe—and that he respected her grandfather a great deal. As for Bepo, it seemed that Gramps had taken Bepo when he was a cub with him to North Blue. Most probably he had picked him up somewhere along the way. Gramps had always had soft spot for stray animals, anyway.

When the two of them returned to the Control Room—with Bepo less terrified of her and more relaxed when around her—Nagisa saw Captain Psycho throwing her a subtle disappointed look that said "back already?" on top of his expressionless face. She winked at him to annoy him, and grinned widely when she saw him grimacing.

"So what are you going to do?" He suddenly asked curtly.

"Hm? What do you mean?" She responded in sing-song voice.

"'Fire Fist' Ace is dead. Wasn't he the reason you hitch a ride on my submarine to Marineford?"

"Hitch a ride? How rude. And I thought I told you it's a win-win situation for both of us." She scoffed. "Ace is dead, but there's still Luffy. I'm going to assist him however I can. Simple as that."

"I see."

"What about you? You gain nothing from butting your head into this war except for risking your neck." She said while eyeing him with suspicion.

It was true. She didn't see the reason why he needed to go all the way beyond the walls of Marineford if he had wanted to simply watch the continuation of the war. She also noticed that while he had referred to Ace as 'Fire Fist' Ace, he had referred to Luffy as Mister Straw-hat, which implied some sort of previous acquaintanceship between him and Luffy.

"We have an agreement. Me, Mister Eustass, and Mister Straw-hat."

"What agreement? That you'll be best buddy forever?" She snickered, enjoying every ounce of irritation that showed very subtly on Captain Psycho's face.

"That we will meet in the New World."

"Uh-huh. So?"

"It'll be a shame if he is to die here. In Marineford, in the hands of the Marines." He scoffed at the last word.

"Hmmm…" She eyed him with a measuring look in her eyes. "And you go out of your way to save him because of that one agreement? How sweet of you."

She savoured every last bit of it when Captain Psycho gave her that dirty look.

"Oh, and Mister Trafalgar? Drop that 'Miss' shits already. That just doesn't suit me. B'sides, that's not even a respectful honorifics. You're just mocking people with that, aren't you?" She drawled, as if disinterested.

She had no problems with being called 'Miss Nagisa', really. It was actually the custom in Kaigara Island, where people addressed other people whom they weren't so close with such honorifics with their last names. Captain Psycho probably had picked up that habit from Gramps, seeing that he spent majority of his time with Gramps while in North Blue, according to Bepo.

"I do as I please." He said smugly while looking down at her—she was a good one goddamn head shorter than him, curse her genes.

"Insufferable jerk." Nagisa spat at him. "Aaah, this is boring. I shall check on the war."

"_Check_ on the war? How are you going to do—"

"**Kokuton no jutsu: Heaven's Eyes.**" She chanted while ignoring him, her fingers intertwined and her eyes closed.

Her awareness departed from within the submarine to the high sky. It was a high-level ninjutsu that required ridiculous bout of concentration and massive amount of energy to execute. However, this technique allowed her to survey the surrounding from a bird's point of view, and right at the moment she was looking at the war from right above Marineford.

She didn't like what she was seeing. Not one freaking bit.

There was a huge fissure on the ground that practically split the Marineford battleground into two. On one side, closest to the frozen sea, were the Whitebeard Pirates and their allies. On the other side was the Marineford building with majority of the Marines soldiers, with Whitebeard standing there. He stood proud and mighty, with his cape down. Nagisa knew then that the good old man had passed away. Her heart turned into heavy lead, but she swallowed it silently. While her awareness was there in the sky, her physical body was still in the submarine of the Heart Pirates. She couldn't afford to show signs of weakness. Not now. Not in front of him.

Nagisa scanned the battleground, and noticed that most of the efforts from the lesser Marines were to kill every single pirates in front of them, while the Admirals were hot on a fishmen's heels. At first Nagisa was puzzled on why the Admirals—especially that motherfucker Akainu—were so intent on getting their hands on that fishman. Also, he had noticed that most of the pirates were covering for him. Nagisa flinched when she saw Akainu's goddamn magma fist blasted through the poor fishman's chest—that had to be painful. The fishman landed on the frozen sea and knelt. In this instance, Nagisa saw it. Beneath the fishman was something—or rather, someone—that he had been trying to protect using his own body.

"LUFFY!"

Her shock broke her spell, and her awareness was sent back to her physical body in a slam. She dropped to the cold floor on her butt, and she felt cold sweats trailing down her temples and the back of her neck. Oh, dear Trinity. Luffy had looked positively dead.

"Miss Nagisa? What happened?" She heard Captain Psycho asking, but there was no hint of concern in his voice, only mild curiosity. "You were screaming Mister Straw-hat's name before you fell."

"L, Luffy…He…He's…" She started unsurely. "He's….Is he even alive?"

That bought Trafalgar Law's attention. The next thing she knew, she had the full face of Captain Psycho right in front of him, a frown on the bridge between his eyebrows and a downturn of his lips.

"What did you see?"

"He…He just…He just looks so dead."

"Describe him to me."

"It's…" Nagisa swallowed. This was going to be hard. "His eyes are all white. His mouth is hanging open like he's just screamed. There're cuts and other bruises all over his body. His whole front and hands are covered in blood—I don't even know if that's his blood or others. His…There's this...I don't know. Burn marks? The skin on his chest looks more like it's been burned or…something...Most likely from Akainu's Trinity-damn-it-all magma attack…"

"The Admiral is personally hunting him down?"

"…Whitebeard is dead…" She whispered very softly; not exactly answering Law's question nor was she explaining why the Admiral was personally after a rookie like Luffy.

She barely noticed Captain Psycho holding his breath when she said those words. However, she heard it loud and clear when he barked orders at his men to go full speed towards Marineford, to the area where the sea wasn't frozen. The men immediately responded and went to do whatsoever was needed to spur the submarine faster.

"Miss Nagisa, you look tired." He pointed out the obvious.

She didn't answer. She didn't have the energy to respond at all. The whole thing was too much. First was the news of her grandfather's death two years ago. Then came Ace's death. Now old man Whitebeard was also dead, and Luffy was dying. Being a kunoichi, Nagisa was used to the notion of death and its spectacle. However, she had been the one doing the killing, and none of the people whom she was close to was anyone prone to death by killing. They were all strong people. Now, one by one they started to fall…

Suddenly, she felt a tap on her cheek. When she looked up, she was again face-to-face with Captain Psycho—only there wasn't an ounce of psycho-ness or sadism in those usually cold, indifferent stormy-grey eyes.

"Miss Nagisa. Go and rest in my room." He said in a very commanding manner, and she didn't have the energy to put resistance. She merely nodded and began walking towards the door. She vaguely heard him telling Bepo to accompany her, but she didn't give a damn. She remembered where his room was; she had good memory.

Bepo trailed after her as she walked as sluggishly as her body desired; dragging her feet noisily across the corridor—her mother would've beaten her upside down if she saw her walking so noisily like that—until they reached Captain Psycho's room. They hadn't spoken a word, with Bepo fumbling with his claws as he followed her. Once they reached the door to the room, Bepo side-stepped her and unlocked the door for her. He opened the door for her and she just drifted into the room wordlessly. She quickly took a spot by the side of the bed on the floor, and then sat down while hugging her knees and burying her face on the gap between her chest and her legs.

She could feel Bepo loitering unsurely by the doorway, uncertain on what to do. Nagisa waved a dismissing hand at him, hoping that he would get it and just leave her alone already. Fortunately, the bear got it and promptly closed the door without locking it.

Once Nagisa was sure that she had been left on her own devices in that room, she cried her eyes out silently.

* * *

><p>Shanks had been inside his personal quarter, when he suddenly heard faint whispers of the wind. He straightened up and willed his hearing to be sharper; he had experienced this before. This was the signs that the wind was going to deliver a message of some sort to him from Meifeng. True enough, the whispers became louder and clearer.<p>

…_anks…_

He frowned as he concentrated on his hearing. The sound was the faintest he had ever heard; was this because he was already past the Red Line and not in the New World anymore? After all, the New World was her kind's main territory.

…_Shanks…_

"Mei-chan?" He ventured.

_SHANKS! HOLY SEA KINGS! It's so damn bloody hard to contact you!_

"Uh… I can see that. What's up?"

_Don't 'what's up' me! Whitebeard has just passed away, Ace's been murdered by Akainu, and Luffy's dying! The Admirals are out for his blood! I've got direct orders from Milady. I'm gonna blow you all the way to Marineford A.S.A.P. So you better tell your crew to hang on tight REAL FAST. _

"Wa, wait! Lemme tell them first!" Shanks sputtered as he scrambled towards the door but in all his clumsiness he just had to bonk his head on the wooden door first; of all things.

_Hurry, hurry!_

"Not helping, Mei-chan!" He complained as he rubbed his sore forehead, nonetheless, he went out to the deck real fast. "MEN! HANG ON TIGHT LIKE YOUR LIFE DEPENS ON IT!"

"Hah?" was the collective response of his crew.

"What's this, Shanks?" Benn inquired with a quirked eyebrow.

"MEI-CHAN'S GONNA BLOW US ALL THE WAY TO MARINEFORD!" He yelled as if that would explain everything.

It did.

"OHMIGAWD!" The crew scrambled around frantically, holding to the ropes, the railing, the mast; to any strong parts of the ship, like—as Shanks had instructed—their lives depended on it.

As if answering to its cue, there was a strong howl coming from the general direction of the New World aiming towards the Red Force. The wind assaulted them mercilessly, straining the sails and literally sending the ship flying across the ocean surface _again_.

"EEEEEIIIIIIYAAAAAAHHH!" The crew screamed all the way, until the Red Force landed on the ocean surface in a rough gliding manner.

Water splashed onto the deck in quite a huge quantity, drenching virtually every single man who just happened to be lounging on the deck before Meifeng's wind attacked them. Some were having quite severe case of vertigo, some of the unfortunate ones were suffering from minor concussions from crashing their heads onto the hard parts of the ship.

"Woohoo! That's _awesome_!" Shanks whistled as he picked up himself from the floor.

"It's not healthy for the Red Force." Benn groused as he staggered up. He was really getting old. "By the way, you said Mei-chan contacted you? I thought their abilities are limited to only in the New World?"

"Yeah, generally. But if the higher-ups give their permission, then she can do so. Though her powers will be significantly weaker than when in the New World." Shanks said as he dusted the invisible dusts off his rather wet clothes.

"The higher-ups." Benn echoed.

"Yep. The Trinity."

"So they've come back, eh?" Benn murmured while lighting up his cigars. "It's been roughly fifteen years; give and take a few months, since the last time we heard of them."

"Yeah. Wonder what made them disappear. In any case, it seems that she's gotten the order from _the_ higher-up."

Benn raised one eyebrow and looked at his captain quizzically. "What do you mean?"

"Mei-chan refers to the Trinity collectively as 'the higher-ups'. However, there is only one Trinity that she refers to as 'Milady'." Shanks looked at his First-mate with a sharp glint in his eyes.

"Ah." Benn smiled knowingly. "The number one Trinity."

"More like practically the _Queen_ of the witches." Shanks corrected with flamboyant gesture of spreading his arm sideways widely like a man presenting a gobsmacking treasure to behold.

"To think that the leader of the witches will issue an order to Mei-chan to assist us. Aren't we honoured, Captain?"

"Sure we are. Bet Mei-chan herself is spooked out of her mind when she is suddenly contacted by _her_."

"Mei-chan is their royal messenger, eh?" Benn said amusedly. In the early days of the Red-Hair Pirates; before the Trinity made their vanishing act, they had often seen Meifeng relaying messages to other witches via her wind.

"Yeah. But the queen here is the one Trinity that she truly fears." Shanks' cheeky grin was replaced by a rather serious expression. "She respects the other two Trinity big time, but she doesn't _fear_ them. This one is another different case—or so is the impression when she told me about her. Mess with her, and that's just as good as pissing off Death itself."

Benn Beckman let this information sank into his head, storing it for future reference, and to make sure that none of the crew—including his idiot of a captain—messed with the Trinity at all. Looking at the hierarchy, it would seem that this witch-queen was at the pinnacle, with the two other Trinity as her left and right hands. Oh, but he had heard of something else about her…

"I heard she has an avatar." This was more like a question than a statement.

"Aye, but Mei-chan's not telling me who the avatar is." Shanks' serious face then evolved to another whole level of solemnness; something that even Benn himself rarely saw on his goofy captain's face. "But in any case, she told me that Whitebeard and Ace have just passed away, and Luffy's life is in danger."

Benn's smile dropped. The Red-Hair Pirates and the Whitebeard Pirates might be rivals, but they respected each other. Whitebeard was a magnificent man, fullstop. He then turned to look at the direction of Marineford much like his captain was doing. They remained silent for a while, only gazing to the direction where the war was taking place.

"It's a truly great loss for the Whitebeard Pirates." Benn finally said at length.

"And Luffy as well…"

Shanks recalled the time when Ace had visited him in that snowy mountain in a winter island, back when he was still a super rookie that hadn't joined the Whitebeard Pirates yet. He had told him wondrous stories of his childhood days spent growing up and looking after Luffy. Shanks had been ridiculously delighted when he listened to those tales, and he could glean from those stories—even when they were told from Ace's point of view—that Luffy admired the fire-user older brother a great deal. Luffy had to be utterly devastated by Ace's untimely death.

However, there was one other issue that bugged Shanks. From what little Meifeng had told him, this scary lady who was the leader of the witches did not meddle with affairs not pertaining to the witches, the New World, or the Void Century. If she even bothered to order Meifeng to assist them in reaching Marineford soon, _something_ that piqued her interest greatly must have happened during the war. Was it because of Ace's death? Or was it because of Luffy? Or was it because Nagisa—since she was a witch-to-be and whose whereabouts in 'Paradise' Grand Line was still currently unknown—had somehow gotten herself involved with the war?

Nevertheless, whatever the reason was, he was just grateful of the helping hand.

_Luffy, hang in there…_

* * *

><p>"Put Mister Straw-Hat on my ship!"<p>

_Wow, great way to convince someone to hand over a dying person, Captain Psycho._ Nagisa couldn't help but to roll her eyes. He didn't like being ordered around but he just loved ordering people around.

They had just surfaced at the border of Marineford; a safe distance from the shore yet not too far from it. The only reason they had stopped there was because Nagisa had earlier told Law that Luffy and the fishman were in the hands of someone flying over the war zone. Law had promptly ordered his men as his ass pleased to surface quite a distance from the shore of Marineford to be safe from assaults, since he thought he could just ask that person to fly over and drop the injured Luffy to his submarine.

No such easy thing.

"'Mister Straw-Hat'? That's a weird way to call somebody. Who the hell are you, brat?"

"I'm going to help him get out of here. Let me take care of him for now!" Law yelled at him above the cacophony of the war. To Nagisa's surprise, his words did sound sincere enough.

"W—What?"

"I'm a doctor!"

_A BIG-TIME psychotic one_, she added inwardly.

"Are you kidding me? Doctors don't carry swords! Do you visit your patient with you damn submarine?"

"Well, I was asking myself that…" She just couldn't help herself.

"Miss Nagisa, shut up." Law hissed at her, and then turned back to try to 'convince' the damn red-nosed clown to just hurry up and drop the precious cargo the _able_ hands of the Heart Pirates. "You're too slow! Hurry and hand him over already!"

"I said who the HELL are you?"

There were some whistling sounds of something zipping through the air, and there were loud crashing sound into the water as the submarines suddenly swayed more violently. Characteristics of cannon balls hitting the sea; she knew it without even looking.

"Captain Law! Marine ships are approaching from the stern!" One of the men guarding the rear of the submarined yelled.

"Hurry up! Put those two on this ship!" Law yelled louder at the damn clown.

"Captain! We'll soon be in range of the Marine ships!" The man whom Nagisa recognised as Shachi shouted from the rear.

"Pretty damn soon, I reckon." Nagisa said while looking over to the rear side, whistling all the while and doing her damnest to look cool with the whole thing.

Even if the cannonballs were to hit the submarine dead on, it wasn't any problems with her. She could just swim her way to the battle zone and joined the fray. The only reason she hadn't done so was because Captain Psycho had made her swear upside down earlier on before they surfaced not to go into the warzone for some reasons that he just wouldn't spit out. If the submarine sank, she'd just somehow get Luffy to the Whitebeard Pirates' ship and made a run for it; she knew how to navigate a ship alright. Besides, she supposed that the objective of the pirates now was to save Luffy anyway.

"Do something, Bepo!" Jean-Bart yelled at Bepo, as the submarine shook with the waves again.

"What? You're not Captain! You're a newcomer!" Bepo yelled back to him in indignation.

Had the circumstances been different, Nagisa would've laughed her ass off at this banter. The thing was, this was in the middle of a war and they were trying to scarper as soon as possible. No, the laugh could wait for later.

"They're coming on this side, too!" Penguin; one of Law's closest henchmen, yelled from another side of the submarine.

While Law was still yelling at the damn clown to just bloody pass the unconscious people in his somehow detached arms to the submarine, Nagisa took her sweet time looking around the war zone. She could see the tall, proud figure of good old man Whitebeard standing in his death with his bizento faithfully in his arm. She silently saluted him in her heart, and then moved on to observe other things. She heard the Marines shouting something that she hadn't really paid attention to, and then she saw the cannons of the ships around the vicinity turning and aiming straight to the floating yellow submarine. Nagisa raised an eyebrow at this and grinned.

"Oh, wow. Look there, Mister Trafalgar." Nagisa said in excited tone as she elbowed Captain Psycho on the rib none too gently. "They're aiming at us straight and I'm telling you they're going to hit dead-on."

"Miss Nagisa, make yourself useful and stop saying nonsenses." He hissed at her, only prompting her to smirk even wider.

"I do as I please." She responded in a sing-song fashion. "Besides, it's not nonsense. I'm just pointing out important things you need to take note, y'know."

Just as Captain Psycho opened his mouth to probably shout some expletives her way, the sea rocked badly out of the blue and so did the vessels sailing or floating on it. Needless to say, the Marine ships danced along with the waves at the very exact time that they fired the cannons. It was pure luck for the Heart Pirates, but it confused Nagisa. As she clung to the railing of the submarine, she scanned the sea. The sea was exactly like how it was when good old man Whitebeard used his Devil Fruit powers.

_But he's dead!_ She screamed in denial as she swept her eyes towards the Marineford.

She then saw the Marines were looking at Blackbeard with horrors and how the latter was laughing his ass off with so much conceitedness and cockiness, Nagisa immediately knew that it was his doing. The bastard stole Whitebeard's Devil Fruit power. The bloody, Trinity-damned asshole friggin' STOLE it. She had heard of the story of him killing his crewmember to get the Yami-yami no Mi for himself, so this meant that he had two Devil Fruit powers in his body?

_Dear Trinity, is that even possible?_ She mused in complete perplexity—which was soon overshadows by pure rage. She was going to fucking kill the bastard.

At the same time when she was about to leap off the railing and swim her way to Marineford and gut Blackbeard to death, she saw a bright light from the corner of her eyes. She saw Kizaru; the Admiral that looked like monkey in yellow, pointing a finger towards that flying red-nosed clown.

"To your left!" She screamed at said clown while pointing to that monkey Admiral's direction.

"Huh?" That clown fortunately looked to his left just in time to avoid the beam that Kizaru had just shot his way. It went past the collar of his robe, just a hair's breadth away from blasting his red-nose into nothingness.

"Why don't you leave Straw Hat here, hmm?" He drawled with finger ready to fire-off another round of beam.

Everything happened quickly afterwards. Captain Psycho yelled at the clown to hand them Luffy and the fishman _again_, and this time the clown obeyed without an ounce of hesitation; seeing that he had become the target of the Admirals by holding them in his hands. Jean-Bart caught them, and Bepo took Luffy in his paws while the gigantic Jean-Bart carried the huge fishman. Captain Pycho gave the order to submerge although they had yet to go into the cabin; the other crewmembers were already scrambling their way into the submarine. Kizaru directed his finger towards the submarine, saying something about Captain Psycho escaping him at Sabaody, and Law cussed to high-heavens when he saw the beam about to be released from Kizaru's finger.

Now that Luffy was on-board of the submarine, the circumstances changed. She now gave a damn about the submarine; if it sank, Luffy would sink as well. Nagisa decided not to budge from her spot and kept her eyes trained to that finger. She prepared to propel herself to the path of the beam should it be fired from Kizaru's finger. Her Seastone garment should withstand the impact, although it was a logia power. She might suffer from the mother of all bruises, but she would live.

"THAT'S ENOUGH!"

The whole plaza dropped into pin-drop silence, even Kizaru dropped his finger in surprise. Law also had stopped and turned around to see who the moron with the balls to shout that in the middle of war was. Nagisa did the same, and she had to do a double-take. A pink-haired, scrawny Marine soldier yelling at the Admirals—particularly at that fucker Akainu—telling them to stop?

"Let's end this now! Let's not fight anymore! We're wasting people's lives! Every single soldier has a family that's waiting for him to come home!"

_Unlike the pirates,_ she fleetingly thought.

"We accomplished the purpose already but we're still chasing the pirates who have no will to fight! We could stop but we're coveting for more! We're giving up on our soldiers who could survive if we treated them right away!"

_Ooh, that gotta sting some of the officers,_ she thought with a whistle.

"On top of that, we keep multiplying the number of victims! Soldiers who're gonna go down after this—They're no more than fools!"

"Oh, wow. That's some serious guts." Nagisa whispered to nobody in particular. She was too taken aback by this brazen act of an insignificant Marine soldier. Was he having a death-wish or what?

Of course that Trinity-damn Akainu was pissed off. To others' surprise and not to Nagisa's surprise, he raised a hand and was about to execute the poor guy when Nagisa saw—from the corner of her eyes—someone darting across the field and intercepting his Trinity-damn magma fist. The next second, the poor young Marine apparently had passed out and fell to the ground on his back with froths spilling from his mouth and his eyes all white—the exact symptoms of fainting due to sheer fear.

"Good job, you young Marine soldier. The courageous moments that you created by risking your life just now have changed the future of the world tremendously—for better or worse." The guy's saviour said.

Nagisa almost tripped on her own legs when she did a double-take of that saviour. She bloody knew that man!

"S, Shanks? Why is Shanks here?"

She couldn't help it. How the hell was he here? Okay, maybe Luffy was Shanks' golden boy, but it was just creepy how he could cross the New World and the Red Line straight to Marineford in less than a day! The news of Luffy barging into the war was just broadcasted a few hours ago, after all. Or was it about Whitebeard? From what she heard from Meifeng, the Red-Haired and the Whitebeard weren't in so bad a pirate relationship.

_It has to be Mei-chan's doing. There's no way the Red Force can sail that fast._

She was so shocked about Shanks' untimely appearance that she tuned out her surroundings. She hadn't felt the submarine starting to move further away from the Marineford. She hadn't heard Law ordering everyone to get into the submarine until she felt herself being dragged towards the door of the cabin by the scruff of her collar.

"HEY!"

"Get inside, Miss Nagisa! We are submerging soon!" He all but threw her none too gently into the submarine.

"B, but Kizaru!" She scrambled to her feet and dashed towards the open door. "He's going to beam us into oblivion! I gotta stop him before—"

"And how are you going to stop him, exactly?" Law frigging' hook her by her waist—the smart bastard remembered not to touch her arms that were wrapped in black Seastone garment—and stopped her from taking a foot outside the cabin.

"Would you rather have the submarine sporting hole that'll guarantee sure-drown under the sea, then? Trafalgar, hands off!" She yelled at his face and then did something that would ensure her liberation from his arms. She hugged him while making sure her Seastone garment make direct contact with him.

His arms around her waist loosened up promptly.

"You little—" His words were cut short when Nagisa pushed him roughly aside and stumbled her way to the open deck.

"Shut up and lemme deal with—" She turned towards Kizaru and was stunned when she saw Shanks' First-mate pointing his rifle at that monkey Admiral. She blinked once, and suddenly from the corner of her eyes she saw something huge and _red_ passing by the submarine. Huge, red, and sailing on the sea—there was only one thing that she could associate that with.

"Hey, isn't that Nagisa-chan down there?"

Nagisa looked up and, indeed, she saw the Red Force sailing past the submarine. Even when she was standing on the deck of the comparably smaller vessel, she just knew that the deck of the Red Force had to be overflowing with the crew of the Red-Haired Pirates. Some of them were looking over the railings towards him, and she recognised some of the faces.

"Nagisa-chan! Why are you here?"

She turned and saw a dread-lock haired man flailing a fist at her from above the deck.

"Hi, Yasopp!" She waved at him jubilantly. It had been too long since the last time she saw these guys. "I'm—"

"Mei-chan's looking for ya! She's PISSED OFF!"

Nagisa gulped hard. She was in oh so deep shit when she got back to the New World.

"Miss Nagisa, get back here and inside NOW!" A very irate Trafalgar Law shouted from the door of the cabin while glaring murder at her. "Or we'll submerge with you outside here and see how _you_ like it."

"Oh, fine, fine." Nagisa rolled her eyes and walked towards the door half-heartedly while dragging her feet.

"Nagisa-chan, take care of Luffy for us, alright?" She heard Yasopp calling out at her again.

"No problem! I'll make sure this psycho patch him up real good!" She gave them a toothy grin while pointing rudely at Captain Psycho.

"Nagisa. Get. In. Now." He all but growled at her in a very beastly manner, like he was going to pounce at her and rip her jugular clean. Oh, and she oh so noted how he hadn't used that 'Miss' shit this time. Woo-ee! One point for Nagisa!

"Captain, it's dangerous!" Nagisa saw Bepo running towards his captain from inside the submarine. "Sure, you can't often see the Yonkou, but close the door already!"

Nagisa raised an eyebrow at this. The way Bepo said it implied that they had seen the Yonkou before in personal level. At the same time, Nagisa noted how Captain Psycho had chosen to stare at Shanks now that they were a good distance away from the shore of Marineford. He was even leaning quite comfortably against the frame of the door. There was something unreadable in those eyes.

_Now this is something worth investigating_, she mulled with an excited smirk.

"Captain! Captain! They're gonna attack us if we don't submerge soon! Please close the door!"

Unable to withstand Bepo's whining, Captain Psycho straightened up and gave Nagisa the 'get you lazy ass here and get inside for Roger's sake' glare. She merely shrugged and strolled her way towards the door. She noticed that Bepo had been technically ordering Captain Psycho to close to door, but the latter seemed unperturbed and took absolutely no offense from this. It seemed that Bepo was the only one able to 'order' him around and getting away with it clean.

"Wait a damn minuuuuteee!" A shrilly voice cut through the air and both Captain Psycho and Nagisa turned to the source of that annoying voice. They saw that blasted red-nosed clown flying his way towards the submarine. In his hands was a straw-hat.

The clown flew towards them and passed the hat to them with flourish. Captain Psycho caught it easily and he seemed to recognise the hat—well, duh, who wouldn't? That was the sacred symbol of Straw-hat Luffy, anyway. Law had to be blind to not recognise it.

"Captain, hurry up, hurry up!" Bepo continued urging while flailing his paws frantically.

"Alright, alright." Law grumbled as he turned to step inside the submarine.

"Nagisa-chan, you too!"

At this, Law turned around sharply and gave her a piercing questioning stare—which she responded with an offhanded shrug. It was understandable; nobody else in the submarine got away with calling her 'Nagisa-chan'. Nonetheless, she hurried into the submarine and Bepo finally closed the door behind her. Captain Psycho and Bepo immediately broke into a run towards the depth of the submarine, and Nagisa was left with the only option of following them close. However, something was nagging at her at the back of her mind. After the suspicion that had arose from Bepo's statement, Nagisa had glanced at the crew on-board of the Red Force. Some of the veteran crewmembers had been looking at her and waving at her, but the most veteran of them were looking at the direction of Captain Psycho.

There was a hint of recognition on their faces.

* * *

><p>After the yellow submarine that bore Luffy and Nagisa-chan had completely submerged and disappeared from view, there were small discussions among the most senior members of the Red-haired Pirates.<p>

"Say...Wasn't that the Trafalgar boy?"

"The one from North Blue, right? The apprentice of Boss' old friend? I was wondering as well. He looks too familiar."

"Boy, hasn't he grown up so much?"

"Yeah. He used to be this little geeky shrimp, eh?"

"Why's Nagisa-chan with him?"

"I bet she's blackmailed him into rescuing Luffy."

They looked at each other. Knowing Nagisa-chan…

"That's totally possible."

She had observed how Trafalgar Law wouldn't let anyone else touch Ren except for Bepo. It gave her a sense of reassurance that he indeed treasured the nodachi to a great extent. However, she hadn't expected that she would so soon be included in his list of the people he would entrust the nodachi to—though that just made sense since the nodachi had been bloody forged for her, Trinitydammit.

"Hold her for me. Go to the Control Room and help the guys with the escape route." He had ordered her, spun her on the spot by her shoulders, and pushed her to the general direction of the Control Room.

"But why can't I—"

"Mister Straw-hat is in the operation room, and I'm going to operate on him." Captain Psycho said deadpan while looking at her straight in the eyes with that bored look of his special brand.

Nagisa blanched.

"I'm off."

With that, she went her merry way to the Control Room. In there, she found a few guys and—surprisingly—Jean-Bart handling the submarine's controller. Nagisa blinked at this. Hadn't Jean-Bart been a Captain before he was captured and made a Tenryuubito's slave? And how the hell did he know how to operate a submarine, anyway?

"Was given a crash-course during the trip to Marineford walls." The giant answered her unvoiced question. Well, that wasn't so surprising that he had noticed—Nagisa had been staring at him hard enough even a blind person wouldn't miss it.

"Oh. I see." She shrugged.

"Why are you holding Captain's nodachi? I was told that nobody else touch it except for Bepo." He asked, and Nagisa noticed the curious eyes and ears of the audience present in the Control Room.

"This used to be mine."

Now all eyes were towards her.

"You wanna know how and why, ask you psycho of a captain." She sniffed. She wasn't obligated to tell these nosy people about his past, nor was she in the mood of story-telling anyway. "Anything I can help with here? Any problem with escape route?"

"No. I think we can use the same escape route as from before." One of the men answered her.

"Alright. I'll be on the watch." Nagisa took a seat somewhere random and out of the way. She closed her eyes and chanted: "**Suiton no Jutsu: Third Eye.**"

As she was granted the vision of the sea from the perspective of the retreating submarine, Nagisa was allowed access to see whatever was attacking or pursuing the submarine from behind. So far there was nothing, but soon she saw something. Something definitely not good.

_Trinity damn you, Aokiji_.

"Boys, buck up." She told the men in the Control Room. "The water's turning into ice."

"Huh?"

"Like, NOW! GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE! SPEED UP, YOU DODOHEADS!" She screamed at them as she saw how freakishly fast the seawater was turning into solid ice.

Out of surprise and shock, the men sped up the submarine too abruptly that the whole vessel shook so roughly some of the things toppled down to the floor and even some of the men fell down on their butt. There were some complaints from the operation room—transmitted through their intercom system whatchamacallit—and Jean-Bart reported to them exactly what she had told the men in Control Room.

"Speed up some more! More, more! Argh, the butt! The butt of the sub! Almost!" Nagisa screamed at the men while keeping watch at the onslaught of the ice.

She didn't know whether she was helping them or driving them into panic attacks with her frantic screaming, but she didn't really care. So far so good, so she figured that her screaming at them did help. After a while, the ice stopped chasing after them and she breathed a sigh of relief. Jean-Bart had noticed this, apparently.

"Did we lose them?" He asked.

In response to that question, Nagisa directed her 'third sight' to the surface of the water. To her dismay, she saw the surface brightening. She knew what was coming.

"Nah. This next one will be tricky." Nagisa broke contact with her Third Eye and ran over to Jean-Bart since he was the one handling the 'steer' of the submarine. She put a finger on his back and instructed: "Listen, you move the sub exactly as my finger moves on your back, alright? Here comes! **Suiton no Jutsu: Third Eye.**"

It was lucky for them that the power of logia Devil Fruit mostly didn't defy the laws of physics. Light would be refracted when they go from air to water since water had higher density than air, so Kizaru's attack would be rather off the tracks, though it wouldn't really help much. Also, light travelled at slower speed in water than in air. They could survive. Nagisa actually doubted that the submarine would be able to follow the direction that she was giving to avoid the onslaught of that light attacks thingamajig from Kizaru, but she had no better options. At least it could be ensured that they wouldn't get a clean hit.

Nagisa was so focused with her Third Eye and giving accurate dodging path to Jean-Bart that she absolutely didn't hear the outrageous yelling from the gigantic man, nor did she hear the order from Law to go deeper to the bottom of the sea. Bepo's cries of panic and despair obviously didn't reach her ears, even as he was making obnoxious noises that weren't helping at all and only served to irritate the Captain of the Heart Pirates. She was just concerned to prevent the submarine being riddled with holes like a beehive.

It turned out that the submarine was better in quality than she had estimated, and Jean-Bart proved to be good with his hands on the steer. They got away perfectly unscathed and Nagisa had to wonder if that was a fluke due to the fact that there were two 'D' s on-board of the submarine? Though one was dying…

_Oh, please. Enough with the gloomy shit._ She berated herself as she cancelled out her Third Eye technique.

Luffy would survive. He definitely would survive. If at the worst case scenario Luffy did die; Trafalgar Law would be the receiving end of her wrath, and she would go back to Marineford and attempt to tear Akainu from limbs to limbs then and there even if that was the last thing she would do in this lifetime.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Author's Note:<strong> ...I don't really have anything to say about this. School's murdering me inside out, I'm drowning in my Animation homeworks. Oh well... I hope I'm not losing my touch. I know this Naruto-ish ninjutsu isn't helping at all, but I can't help it. I really have no idea on what to do with ninjas or kunoichi. What was I thinking when I created Nagisa and assigned her, of all things, kunoichi profession? Oh, I remember. Her being a Wano Country native, which is equivalent to Japan. Gah._

_And REVIEWS please_


	10. Post Bellum

_**Disclaimer: **_ _One Piece belongs to Eeichiro Oda-sensei and whatever else that has rights on it. This is for personal use and not for commercial use_

_**Story so far:**__ Things were bound to be messy when a war of the scale of the War of the Best in Marineford ended._

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 10<strong>

_**POST BELLUM**_

* * *

><p>Shanks stood in the middle of the very much damaged plaza of Marineford. The area was bustling with pirates and Marines alike helping their wounded comrades and collecting the bodies of the fallen. Shanks had laid down Ace's body and covered it with a white sheet of clothes; which was quickly tainted red with the boy's blood from his abdomen. Shanks couldn't help but to give a wistful smile as he saw Ace's smiling face in his death. That face reminded him so much of his late captain; the eternal Pirate King.<p>

Shanks hadn't known that Ace was Captain Roger's son. He suspected that nobody of the Roger Pirates knew of that fact. During Shanks' time as apprentice on the Oro Jackson, he hadn't seen his late captain engaging in any sorts of relationship with any women. He had to have met this Portgas D. Rouge after he had disbanded the Roger Pirates. Shanks vaguely wondered if Master Rayleigh had known about this; he was, after all, a First-mate as well Captain Roger's only confidant.

Turning around, Shanks faced the magnificent body of the newly deceased Whitebeard. He stood there proudly; his long-time rival. In all honesty, Shanks didn't really consider Whitebeard as his rival. They weren't exactly competing for anything, both having no further goal than to enjoy life of freedom as pirates and to go around the world in adventures with their own respective crew.

The younger Yonkou couldn't help but to have tears pooling on his eyes as he gazed at Whitebeard's stiff body wistfully.

Once they had gathered the body and stored them properly on the ships, the Black Moby Dick and the Red Force sailed from Marineford towards the New World, where they planned to bury the bodies of the respected members of the Whitebeard Pirates. Shanks sat on the deck, looking at the horizon with a faraway look, when Yasopp suddenly approached him.

"Boss, there's something I gotta tell you." The crew's sharpshooter said as he sat down next to him.

"What is it, Yasopp?" Shanks asked without averting his solemn gaze from the horizon.

"Nagisa-chan was here."

That got Shanks' attention. He whipped his head towards Yasopp with wide eyes.

"Here? In Marineford? Was she participating in the war?"

"No, no." Yasopp shook his head and his raised hands. "I don't think so. She was with that Trafalgar boy, on board of his submarine."

"Trafalgar boy?" Shanks asked, tilting his head in confusion.

"That weird boy from North Blue. Remember?"

Shanks hummed for a while as he pursed his lips and furrowed his eyebrows. He tried to dig back the memories from years ago. North Blue? The last time he went there was years ago. Trafalgar boy? Trafalgar…Trafalgar…

Big eyes. Dark rings under the eyes. Slightly tanned skin. Furry hat. Scalpel.

"OH!" Shanks grinned as if he suddenly had enlightenment from Buddha himself. "Trafalgar Law? Isora's apprentice, eh? Yeah, I remember him—wait, WHAT? That was him? That was his sub?"

"You didn't know it was him?"

"By heavens, NO! So Law was the one saving Luffy? Oh my God!"

"You're forgetting Nagisa-chan." Yasopp sweat-dropped.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. You were saying Nagisa-chan was here?"

"I said she was on-board Trafalgar boy's submarine."

"She's with him? How come?"

"I ain't no clairvoyance, Boss. You gotta ask the boy and girl yourself."

"Well, at least now we know how to find her. We'll finish with _this_ first, then we'll go after Nagisa-chan."

With a nod, Yasopp got up and walked away somewhere else. Shanks turned back to stare at the horizon, this time with a slight smile on his face. Trafalgar Law, that weird boy from North Blue. Shanks and his crew had gone there after he left East Blue, straight after leaving Luffy's hometown Windmill Village, to visit an old friend from the New World. In truth, it had been Shanks who had carried Sohaku D. Isora from Kaigara Island of Wano Country to the Reverse Mountain. They had been friends since long time ago; their friendships sparked from their mutual interest in swords. The Roger Pirates did come to Wano Country before, but they had docked on the capital and not the small Kaigara Island.

He remembered the mountains of questions that the boy threw at his face during his visit. He had asked him questions about the sea, about the other seas, about his adventures. Briefly Shanks was reminded of Luffy, but the Trafalgar boy lacked that 'happiness beam' that seemed to leak from his Anchor. He indeed was enthusiastic, but he was way more reserved than his obnoxious Anchor was. Law gave a well-bred vibe, and there was an aura of maturity that just seemed too advanced for a boy his age. Later on, from Isora's story, Shanks found out that the boy got it from the strict upbringing of his parents.

**XXXX FLASHBACK XXXX**

"The boy doesn't like his parents." Isora suddenly said when Law had gone out of the room with the polar bear Bepo—who had grown as tall as Law's waist when he stood on his hind legs.

"He doesn't?" Shanks asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Nay. Dare I assume, he actually hates 'em. Parents never give him an ounce of real love. They just feed him, clothe him, give him shitload of best education this island can afford—y'know, that kind of stuff." Isora said with a shrug, and downed his drink. "Parents are damn proud of him, would boast 'bout him to anyone with willing ears. Don't really love the boy for who he is, more like for his brains. Scary thing is the boy knows that. He's too smart for his own goodness."

"I see…" Shanks cast a glance over his shoulders to the door of the room that the said boy had used earlier on to exit the room. "Is that why he stays in your place most of the time? Because he doesn't want to see his parents?"

"Aye, reckon so. Parents came to me and complain until my ears almost bled, for the love of all Sea Kings. Gave 'em a piece of my mind to shut 'em up and listen to people for flippin' once."

"Isora-san, you're drunk."

"'M not! Aaaaw, I miss my Nagi-chaaaaann…"

"Definitely drunk." Shanks sweatdropped.

"Boy wanna go out the sea, outta dis borin' place, he said." Isora continued regurgitating whatever came to his mind out of sheer drunkenness. "But he also wanna be doctor. Gotta morbid fascination with anatomies, dat brat. Saw 'im cuttin' open a dead cat to see whassa goin' on inside. Hafta kick'im outta da workshop fer makin' a bloody mess…"

Shanks raised an eyebrow. Isora made it sound as if the boy was some psychopath or something. Well, at least the boy didn't kill the cat in order to cut it open. But anyway, Isora started slurring so badly and Shanks was starting to have a hard time understanding half of what he was saying due to the old man's special brand of drunken accent.

"But boy hassa goo' heart. Yessir… Da bear cub? 'e took care o' 'im 'till 'e's as goo' assa brannnew. Named 'im, even. Bepo, 'e said. Dunno why da' name. Can' figure out wattsa goin' on in da' big brain o' 'is mostta time 'ven when ma life d'pends onit." Isora hiccupped but took another swig of his sake. "Wanna be a pirate, 'e says. Be da cap'n, 'ave 'issown crew. Phah! Boy can' e'en saff 'is ass fr'm mee in sparrin'. Wouldn lastta min'te outterre in Grand Line. Knowin' 'im, 'e'd be da doctor 'imself. Boy's proud o'is medic' thingamajig. Doct'r-cap'n. Dere such thin' out in da sea, Shanks?"

It took Shanks a few minutes to translate the words that the old man was belching, and another minute to digest them before he could produce any answers. Gee, even when he was dead drunk on his feet it was never _this _bad.

"I guess there are pirates with double job on-board. But Isora-san, I really think you should stop drinking." Shanks began prying the sake bottle out of the old man's hands. "You should rest, or the boy will be angry at me for making you sick."

"…Yessir…Should'a rest. Nagi-chan won't likkit whenna drunk. Smell likka skank, she says." Isora hiccupped once more, but relinquished his grip on the sake bottle. "Boy also…Acts like a goddamn cold-heart'd lil' bast'rd, but nags worse dan ma own granmama…He'ssa good boy…"

Then he dropped like a dead leaf on the floor and started snoring like there was no tomorrow; prompting Shanks to grin like a fool. The old bladesmith didn't drink that often, but once he got drunk, he got himself wasted even worse than Shanks ever did. Shanks got up on his feet and went out of the house in search of the old man's apprentice. From his story, the boy was practically living in his workshop.

That particular town was covered in snow almost all year round. Shanks wondered vaguely why Isora had chosen that place. His own hometown in the New World wasn't on a winter island, and old men usually weren't compatible with cold weathers. The young Yonkou supposed that it had to do with the fact that Sohaku D. Isora was incorrigibly a quirky-bordreing-senile old man, even since the first time he got to know him.

It didn't take long before Shanks found Isora's apprentice. He was sitting on a boulder, his thin body hunched over as he read a terrifyingly, mind-bogglingly thick book—thick enough to bash someone's skull open when handled 'properly'—with the polar bear playing in the snow nearby. Shanks deliberately made noises as he approached the boy, since the boy had this perpetual wary look on his face when he wasn't with the old man. It was as if he didn't trust people around him, even the villagers, except for his mentor. It was kind of sad, in Shanks' opinion. He fleetingly thought of kidnapping the boy and dumped him on Luffy. Perhaps his Anchor could fix that.

"Hey there, boy." He greeted him with a wide smile.

The boy looked up from his book and scrutinised him from head to toe. When Shanks was close enough, the boy scrunched up his nose.

"Gramps got himself wasted again, didn't he?"

"Ah, yeah. How—"

"First, you reek of sake. Second, Gramps doesn't chase me out of his house when he's having guests, only when he wants to drink—and highly likely get wasted into oblivion in the end. He rarely drinks."

"Oh, so you've seen him getting drunk before?"

"No. When I go back there, usually he's already out cold." The boy closed the book and jumped off the boulder. "C'mon, Bepo. Gramps is out of it again."

"Okay." The bear-cub muttered softly before standing up and walking to the boy's side.

Shanks followed them silently as they made their way to Isora's house. Shanks then wondered why the boy hadn't cut open the talking bear out of utter fascination. He sounded—from Isora's description of him—like someone who would do that just to figure out why a bear like him could talk.

"Say, Mister Red-hair." The boy suddenly asked while glancing over his bony shoulder.

"Hm?" Shanks noticed that his stormy-grey eyes were fixed on the empty sleeve of his jacket.

"Do you know that you can re-attach a severed limb after a few hours of dismemberment as long as the limb is still in good condition?"

Shanks just had to laugh at this. The boy's tone suggested that he; the 14-years-old boy, could fix Shanks' arm.

"Unfortunately, my left arm is lost forever. It was eaten by a Sea King about two years ago."

"Hmm… I see. That's too bad." The boy went back to staring straight ahead the road.

"I heard from Isora-san that you want to go out to the sea and be a pirate?"

"Yeah. What of it?"

"Nothing." Shanks grinned; talking with a boy who wanted to be a pirate just reminded him of his dear Anchor from East Blue. "When one day you go out to the seas, you'll see a pirate wearing a straw-hat."

"A straw-hat?"

"Yep. A boy a few years younger than you, with a straw hat and a scar below his left eye."

**XXXX END OF FLASHBACK XXXX**

* * *

><p>The moment they were out of the danger zone of Marineford, Nagisa had quickly retreated to Law's private room and holed up in there for indefinite duration of time—until the surgery on Luffy and that fishman was finished, she supposed. Despite the insistence of the crew that they were not grubby bunch of men (supported by the fact that their captain was a clean-freak surgeon, for Trinity's sake), that they knew their manners around ladies ("YOU FRIGGIN' TRIED TO CATCH ME WITH A NET LIKE A FISH THE OTHER DAY!"), and that they were ordered not to touch her at all (of course, that was the deal with Captain Psycho), Nagisa still did not want to mingle with the rest of the crew. In the first place, she didn't really like boys anyway.<p>

In the end, Nagisa sat on the carpeted floor of the room while hugging Ren like a little girl would hug her dear teddy bear. She could feel the sword resonating with her presence; she hadn't forgotten her original master. For a moment, Nagisa was washed over by a feeling of nostalgia, remembering the good old days when she would play with her grandfather, when she would eagerly train her swordsmanship with the hope that someday she would wield Ren in battlefield with pride—a dream that now was as good as dead. She still couldn't rest well with the fact that her grandfather had given the ownership of the nodachi to Trafalgar Law, but she would respect his last wish.

It was too bad that Captain Psycho still hadn't discovered Ren's true spirit underneath the blade. If only he knew the real extent of what Ren was capable of…

Nagisa's musing was interrupted when suddenly she sensed a distortion in the air. She stood up abruptly and took a sword-drawing stance. Was someone invading the submarine of the Heart Pirates?

As if answering Nagisa's unvoiced question, the scenery before Nagisa's eyes suddenly quivered. Nagisa knew that sign; the dimension was being ripped apart. Soon enough, and true to her suspicion, there was a black hole floating in the middle of the air as the dimension was cut and pulled apart. Instinctively Nagisa bent her knees lower as she readied herself for a possible incoming battle with the intruder. However, something was nagging at the corner of her mind.

_This kind of phenomenon…It can only be caused by one thing…_

Then, someone stepped out of the black hole into the room. Nagisa's eyes widened as she realised just _who _it was that she facing. She fell on one knee and bowed her head.

"It is an honour to be graced by your presence, my Lady."

There was a silence, before it was broken with a peal of laughter. It sounded very amused by Nagisa's action.

"You shouldn't be doing this to me, girl. Rise up."

Nagisa stood up—it was an order, after all—but she still didn't feel quite right to just stare at a Trinity's face just like that. She wasn't even in the rank yet, so why did a Trinity approach her? Gawd. Had she been an airhead enough to break one of the Commandments without realising? Had the Trinity come here to deliver her punishment? Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear, oh dear—

"Look at me, girl."

…She had no choice, hadn't she?

Tentatively and with cold sweat all over her nape, Nagisa looked up and her eyes met with a pair of dazzling amethyst eyes. They studied her from head to toe, all the while tinkling with amusement. There wasn't even a scintilla of anger or whatever in those eyes; just good-natured amusement. So she wasn't in trouble, then?

"What's your name? I can't call you 'girl' all the time, can I?"

And why was she so casual?

"Sōhaku D. Nagisa, daughter of Sōhaku D. Izumi, at your service, my Lady. I hail from Kaigara Island of Wano Country."

"Why so formal?" She chuckled. "Stop addressing me with that 'my Lady' thing. I'm never a Lady and I'll never behave like one."

"B, but—"

"Call me by my name, that'll suffice."

"I…"

"Nagisa."

"Y, yes, my—I mean, yes, Aria-sama."

The name felt strange as it rolled from her tongue. For some reasons, the name Aria had an odd ring to it. It felt unnatural, as if it was a name that a Trinity wasn't supposed to have. Nagisa had been taught the names of the Trinity by her mother, and their appearance had been described in great details. Her mother claimed that all witches would have seen at least one of the Trinity in their entire life, most likely during their service time. It was a must for a witch to recognise a Trinity at one glance.

"Good." The Trinity smiled widely in satisfaction. "Now, why are you out of the New World?"

Nagisa gulped. Inwardly she prayed that being interrogated by a Trinity wouldn't be worse than being interrogated by a livid Meifeng. She really did hope so—an apoplectic Meifeng was the Devil Incarnate, she swore. A witch worse than Meifeng? Oh, the terror…

"I am not yet in the ranks, so I suppose I am still allowed outside the New World. I intended to visit my grandfather who had gone to the North Blue eleven years ago, but..." Nagisa licked her suddenly dry lips. "I've just recently discovered that he has passed away two years ago."

She could feel the eyes of the Trinity staring at the crown of her head—Aria-sama was TALL—as if she was trying to see through the shell of her body, inside her. Nagisa had to fight the urge to twiddle her toes in nervousness.

"I see." Aria-sama finally said at length. "And why are you on-board a pirate's ship?"

"I…" She bit her lower lips. "In agreement with the captain of this crew, I will direct him safely into Marineford if he allows me to board his submarine without trying to kill each other."

"Hmm…" Aria-sama tapped her chin thoughtfully. "It seems that you are well-acquaintance with him, then."

"NO!" She protested, and then realised that she had just yelled at her superior. "F, forgive me for my insolence, Aria-sama. I deserve punishment."

"Nonsense." To Nagisa's surprise, the Trinity before her waved a dismissive hand with a laugh. She seriously sounded very entertained by her and Nagisa couldn't figure out why and how, for the life of hers.

"But I've broken the Command—"

"You are not in our ranks yet; as you've pointed out earlier, so most of the Commandments don't apply to you. Not yet, at the very least. Besides, it's not within my right to decide whether you deserve punishment or not."

"But you are one of the Trinity."

"I am just an avatar, my dear girl." She said with a soft finality in her voice.

Oh. Now THAT was new. She had never heard of any avatars of the Trinity!

"In any case, I was told that Monkey D. Luffy is on-board this submarine."

"Yes! He is being treated by Captain Psy—I mean, Trafalgar Law of the Heart Pirates. Right now he's performing surgery on him, I suppose."

"Oh, oh? Was that a term of endearment that you almost said out loud?"

"Aria-sama!"

"I was just teasing you, dear. But you blush so hard!" She laughed. "You're so amusing. Well, in any case, it was a good decision of me to approach you first before going straight to where Luffy is. If I were to appear out of nowhere in the surgery room, it would only end up disastrous, don't you think?"

"He'll probably get pissed off that someone's interrupting his infernal practice of cutting people apart and sewing them back together." Nagisa murmured darkly under her breath.

"He's patching up Luffy, Nagisa." Aria-sama said patiently, like a parent explaining things to a child. "Although I'm intrigued on why he willingly braced the war in Marineford just to help Luffy."

"He said they had an agreement with another pirate captain, that they're going to meet in the New World, so he feels that it'll be a shame to let Luffy die here in Marineford." Nagisa dutifully supplied the Trinity with information, and added with a murmur, "Though I bet they'll just try to rip each other's throats once they meet. Typical of hot-blooded pirates…"

"Hmm…." Aria-sama hummed as she looked around the room. "Well then, Nagisa. I'll be giving you a mission."

"Your wish is my command, Aria-sama." Nagisa promptly dropped to one knee out of sheer habit, with one hand on the floor and the other arm across her chest.

"You are to look after Monkey D. Luffy until he is healed enough to walk around without accidentally killing himself."

"Understood."

Despite her loyalty at the Trinity, Nagisa couldn't help but to wonder why Aria-sama would go to such length to ensure Luffy's survival. Well, true that he was a kin, considering his middle initial 'D', but this was rather unusual. She suspected a personal connection with Luffy, but she dared not to question the Trinity. It seemed to be a rather private thing.

"Any question?"

"…Umm…" Well, there was one other thing that she really wanted to ask. "If I may ask…How did you come here, just now? I mean, what is your means of transportation…"

"Ah. Right." Aria-sama laughed softly. "I asked Yuma to lend me her power a bit. This bracelet here," she showed her a golden bracelet with a gem embedded on it, "contains her power, so it allows me to travel through dimensions. Though of course there are limitations with its use."

"I, I see." Nagisa was dumbfounded. She had heard of the powers of the Trinity from her mother and this was the first time that she had ever met one, and already she was witnessing the little bit extent of their capability. Travelling through space and dimensions? That was just so plain kick-ass cool!

"Well then, that settles it." Aria-sama suddenly grinned widely—a grin that was horrifyingly close to identical to Luffy's grin on his wanted poster—and leaned forward to Nagisa. "I'll be doing some travelling now. I'm counting on your to look after Luffy, Nagisa-chan."

"…c, _chan_?" Nagisa was feeling giddy. Why was the esteemed Trinity addressing her like _that_, of all things?

"Bye-bye." She waved her hand which had the dimension-travelling bracelet, and suddenly the dimension tore behind her and she leapt into the infinite darkness.

The room fell into pin-drop silence, with the low humming of the submarine engine in the background. Nagisa continued staring at the empty space with slack jaw; her brain was still loading and processing the event that had just transpired a few seconds ago. Aria-sama was…queer. She didn't know if the other Trinity were like that, but she somehow doubted it. Her mother told her that they were dignified women that bore the air of royalty. Rather than regal, Aria-sama was more like…down-to-earth. She was like a rogue princess of some sort.

"_You are to look after Monkey D. Luffy until he is healed enough to walk around without accidentally killing himself." _

Nagisa licked her dry lips; she had been so nervous of being in the presence of a Trinity that her lips had turned parched dry like desert. She then eyed Ren in her hands. She stared at the nodachi for a good while, feeling the sword's humming. Ren was her good-luck-charm sword. It was forged in the hope that its presence would help her broken spirit heal. When one's spirit started to heal, one's body would follow suit as well—so she was taught back then in her homecountry. Would Ren be able to help Luffy as well?

_There's no harm in trying._

With that resolution, Nagisa stood up and stormed out of the room. It didn't take her long to find her way to the operation room, but she stood rooted just outside the room. The operation was obviously still underway. Just by standing so near to an operation room, Nagisa could imagine all kinds of medical monstrosities sitting inside the room. For a while, pictures of her nightmares flashed through her mind, bringing mental and emotional strains unto her.

Nagisa pressed her back to the metal wall opposite of the door to the operation room. She slid down the wall until she was sitting on the floor with the nodachi cradled between her arms and her propped knees. She pressed her forehead against her cold knees, chanting words in her native language with eyes shut tightly and Ren gripped tightly in her hands; wishing that the nightmares would just go away and stop hounding her like that. Cold sweats dripped down her nape and temple.

_Go away, go away, go away, —_

_**Everything's alright, Nagi-chan…**_

The nightmare disappeared. Nagisa felt like crying; Ren chased her nightmare away _again_.

"Miss Nagisa?"

Her breath stopped with a hic.

"What are you doing?"

Nagisa looked up from her position, and found herself staring face-to-face with Trafalgar Law. He was balancing his weight on his toes perfectly, with his elbows on his thighs and his back slightly hunched. Her eyes shifted to his dangling gloved arms—those latex operating gloves were _bloody_. Red, red blood. Lots of it.

"Miss Nagisa."

Her eyes quickly flickered back to meet with his stormy-grey ones. She was met with a frown.

"What are you doing here?" He asked again slowly, as if she was a retard.

She licked her dry lips again. She could do this! "Ren is my good-luck charm."

To her credit, her voice was perfectly composed and even. Law said nothing, but his body language was telling her to 'go on'.

"Her presence helped me recover from my…" She paused. No, there was _absolutely NO _way that she was going to tell him about _that_. "Nevermind. Anyway, I was thinking that if you put her next to Luffy, he may recover sooner."

Even when she wasn't looking at his face, Nagisa could feel the intense searching gaze from him. It practically _scorched_ her. She could tell that he was considering her words, and she prayed that he could just gawd-damn believe her and just do as she bloody instructed!

"Personal experience?" It was more like a statement than a question.

Out of pure reflex and sheer stupidity, Nagisa whipped her eyes to stare accusingly at Trafalgar Law and just had to blurt out: "What do you know?"

Only then she realised that if she had put the brake on her mouth for a minute later, she would have thought of responding with a neutral response to avoid any further nosy questions from the sadist rather than getting all aggressive on such seemingly innocent question-statement. The way she responded just plain told the loco that the 'personal experience' was a big issue, and the asshole would just _love_ to 'torture' the information out of her. Geez.

He didn't answer her straight away, but took his bloody sweet time observing her—she didn't know what he was observing and she didn't want to know, thank you very much. She just hoped to the gods up there—no, scratch that; they were just too bloody unreliable—to the Trinity that he wasn't thinking of how to goad her past out of her.

After a while, he stood up.

"We'll talk about that later." He said with finality. "Come."

"Say _what_?"

"You said Ren can help Mister Straw-hat. I assume only you know how to achieve that." He began walking towards the operation room again, his gloved hands hanging loosely at his side but with a degree of carefulness so that the blood wouldn't stain his clothes. "Because I certainly have no idea on how to do that."

Nagisa was speechless for a moment, before she picked herself up from the floor and walked tentatively towards the operation room. Right before the door, she froze again. She could feel her knees turning into flippin' jello, and she had to muster every ounce of courage she had to just step into the freaking room.

To her absolute annoyance and resentment, she saw Captain Psycho standing by the bed with a very amused look as he watched her taking small steps towards him. She cursed him in her native language with vocabularies that would make even the most foul-mouthed pirates blush and Buddha's ears bleed. Once she reached the bedside, she cringed at the sight of Monkey D. Luffy—most of his skin was covered in bandage, and he had the breathing aid strapped to his mouth. Nagisa bit her lower lips; the sight was disturbing and she just wanted to rip that thing on his face because it just didn't look right on him.

She hadn't been joking when she told Law that she considered him a family. They had never met, but Nagisa really felt like Luffy was her brother, just like Ace was.

Quelling the bile that was rising in her throat at the memory of Ace—she had seen his body in a flash when Law was still yelling at that damn clown to pass Luffy to him—Nagisa unsheathed Ren and held her upright. She leaned the back of the blade against her forehead, feeling the cold touch of the metal and the serene humming of the sword.

_You'll help Luffy, won't you? Ren?_

_**Everything will be alright…**_

Nagisa suppressed a sob. _Thank you…_

With a flick of her wrist, Nagisa jammed the tip of the blade to the metal floor of the operation room, right by Luffy's bedside. She could hear the squeaks of some of the crewmembers that were present there—Bepo yelped—and some of them had actually jumped in surprise. She could see Law raising an eyebrow but saying nothing from the corner of her eyes.

"Don't remove her. Just leave her by his side." She muttered, knowing that Law could hear her.

One nod from Law, and Nagisa quickly scrammed from the room.

* * *

><p>When Law stepped out of the operation room and spotted her curling on the floor with her back to the wall, the first thing that came to his mind was that she looked terribly small. She was physically small, but in this instance she looked so…frail. It was like she had been crushed by the pressure around her. He was even pretty sure that she didn't notice her own shoulders shaking, albeit rather faintly.<p>

When she mentioned about the nodachi being her good-luck charm, his minds immediately flashed back to the conversation he had with Gramps about his traumatised granddaughter. He honestly hadn't expected that the girl would come up with that theory that Ren would be able to help Mister Straw-hat as the nodachi did to her, but he had recalled her saying that she had known Ren better than he did. That was probably true. To be honest, he himself was curious on whether her theory was correct or not.

He had then asked—or more like stated—that her little theory was probably concluded from her personal experience. Expectedly, the silly little thing had caught up with the little 'slip'. Law didn't know if she was aware of it or not but when she asked that 'What do you know' question—most likely she had, and had also realised the sheer stupidity of such immediate, honest response; judging from the way she looked as if she had just guzzled down a bottle of laxative—she had sounded desperate. Very much like a frightened child who had her ugly scars discovered.

"We'll talk about that later." He said, somewhat knowing that she would pester him about it to no end.

Law had taken a bit of amusement from observing her gathering all courage she had to just walk into the operation room—he could see the deliberate efforts in each of her little step. She walked as if she was in a landmine zone. He had observed with intrigue as she held the sword in a ceremonious manner, and was rather taken aback when she slammed the tip of the nodachi to the floor, effectively rooting the blade to the floor.

"Don't remove her. Just leave her by his side." She muttered very, _very_ softly that he almost didn't catch it.

When he gave her a nod to show that he had heard her, she bolted from the room as if the room itself was on fire. The crewmembers were staring at door of the operation room with incredulity on their faces—which was understandable.

"Do not touch this nodachi. Leave it as it is." Law announced as he took off the bloodied gloves and chucked it into the nearest bin.

Scarcely a moment passed after he announced it, that a crewmember came—or rather, catapulted—into the room and blubbered something about Shichibukai and deck.

"Ras, stop."

The young man did.

"Take a deep breath."

He did that also.

"Repeat what you said, this time _slower_."

"Captain! Shichibukai Boa Hancock is on the deck of our sub, and she's demanding to know the condition of Straw Hat Luffy! Bepo, Shachi, and Penguin are currently with her on deck!" The crewmember—Ras—said it all in one breath.

"Boa Hancock the Pirate Empress?" Law raised an eyebrow. "She isn't attacking?"

"No, Captain. Seems like she has kinda hijacked the marine ship, and she doesn't show any hostility." Ras paused. "Only that she's been _too_ eager in knowing about Straw Hat's condition."

"I see…"

Now this was a very interesting turn of event, to say the least.

* * *

><p>Nagisa didn't really mingle with the men of the Heart Pirates, even after briefly braving the War of Marineford together and actually getting out of it alive and intact. She didn't want to go all buddy-buddy with them, which would only serve to make parting harder later since she would definitely, absolutely ditch the crew once her mission pertaining to Luffy was done. Besides, she had this foreboding intuition that Captain Psycho was still intent on making her feel comfortable with the crew that she would stick around with them and help though she wasn't officially part of the crew—which was actually a way to cheat the Commandments. The Commandments of 'prohibited from joining a crew' was only applicable to official participation. She didn't know if he had figured it out himself or what, but she certainly didn't want to alert him on that fact. Hence, she kept that to herself and tried to segregate herself from the rest of the crew.<p>

But alas, the men of the Heart Pirates were stubborn lots.

"Hey, Nagisa-chan! G'morning!" Penguin greeted her.

"Morning, Nagisa-chan!" Shachi followed suit.

These were the very few crewmembers whose names she remembered since they were around Law most of the time and that lazy jackass of a captain usually dumped all orders on these two. Above all, however, these two were the most forward in trying to befriend her, and they had the audacity to use such intimate honorifics when addressing her after only several days of acquaintanceship? Oh, the nerve…

"…_CHAN?_" She all but growled at them. She ought to cut their tongues off and forced those boneless appendages down their respective throats!

They froze.

"Listen up, you oaf. Address me with that honorific again, and there'll be no Father's Day to you."

Due to lack of response, notwithstanding the fact that the boys had frozen in their tracks, she cracked her knuckles.

"Crystal clear?" She growled ominously.

"Y, yes, Ma'am!" They all but _squeaked_.

With a huff and several choices of (decidedly ungainly) vocabularies muttered in her native language, Nagisa turned away and stalked down the corridor towards the deck.

"Buncha ninnies…" She murmured.

"I will really appreciate it if you can refrain from threatening the men on daily basis, Miss Nagisa." A low, droning voice drawled from somewhere behind her. Even when she didn't turn around, Nagisa wasn't an airhead enough not to recognise the owner of the Trinity-damn voice.

"'S not my fault if your men are all wimps." She scoffed as she quickened her pace.

Every time she talked with this psycho, her nerves were always strained to an extent that she never thought she possessed before, and she knew that it was definitely not good for her health. If she didn't get away from him as often as possible and as soon as possible, she swore that he would sooner or later be her death.

Currently, she was marching down the corridor towards the deck of the submarine. The vessel was presently riding the wave on the surface of the ocean, alongside a stolen Marine ship if she had heard right. The men had been gossiping like the true testosterone-driven creatures they were, gushing over the presence of the Pirate Empress Boa Hancock on the Marine ship that was accompanying them. They were talking about her divine beauty or some shits along that line. Really, it was disgusting how they would huddle up in the kitchen while talking about the so-called 'most beautiful female in the world'.

Several days ago, she had been informed by the captain himself that they would be sailing to the Amazon Lily, as apparently for some divine luck the Pirate Empress was head over heels about Luffy and was willing to shelter Luffy; thus the Heart Pirates by extension ("Damn!")

_She holed herself up in the captain's quarter. That was what she did right after she braved the ordeal of stepping into the goddamn operation room just to bless Luffy with Ren's presence. She sat on the floor while hugging her knees—it was her die-hard habit—while waiting for Captain Psycho to come back so that she could question him about their destination now. When he did come back, however, he beat her to it. _

"_We are heading to Amazon Lily."_

_Nagisa blinked at this. She had not just heard that._

_Alright, fine. She heard that._

"…_I would've said that you've lost your mind and gone suicidal for Trinity knows what reasons if not for the fact that you're more inclined to go homicidal rather than suicidal. So, what gives?" She asked with a deep frown and a suspecting stare at him._

"_Shichibukai Boa Hancock has offered to shelter us in Amazon Lily while we help Mister Straw-hat recuperate." He answered smoothly, and then smirked in…was that amusement? "And that was an interesting concept you have about me, Miss Nagisa."_

"_Like I said, it's a fact. More substantiation: you didn't refute that statement, which means it really is the truth. Glad to know that you're aware that you're a sadistic maniac with homicidal tendencies." She said dryly._

At that time, she had noticed how Captain Psycho had shown utter lack of interest when mentioning Boa Hancock. She didn't know whether to be impressed or appalled by the fact that Trafalgar Law was completely unfazed and disinterested in Boa Hancock. Rumours went that her beauty alone could melt the heart of the most battle-hardened warriors—except for a select few. Some even would turn into stones from her sheer Goddess-like beauty. Briefly she wondered if the 'Surgeon of Death' was gay or…necrophilia?

Oh Trinity. The fuuuuuugly mental image.

"What, pray tell, are you trying to do right now, Miss Nagisa?" She heard Law asking her in that irritatingly patronizing manner of his.

Nagisa was very much tempted to just bloody ignore the psycho, but by now she had had enough first-hand experience to know that ignoring the man was equal to asking for ugly confrontation with the lunatic. Through gritted teeth, she dutifully answered his query.

"Attempting to reach an open space blessed with blissfully fresh air and OUT of this steaming hell hole." She snarled while picking up her speed yet again.

"Ah…I see." She could oh SO hear the smirk in his voice. "It appears that the life in submarine doesn't suit you."

"Figures." She murmured breathlessly while keeping her eyes trained on the door at the end of the metal encased corridor.

When the New World native slammed open the door to the deck, she was rewarded with the sight of a ridiculously tall woman in purple overall sitting on a huge snake coiling around her like a throne. She stopped in her tracks, and the woman turned to regard her. Nagisa knew her from the articles in the newspaper; she was the Pirate Empress, Shichibukai Boa Hancock of the Kuja Pirates.

To Nagisa's surprise, the Pirate Empress showed a hint of recognition as the voluptuous woman with overly endowed chest studied the New World native.

"You are—"

To her chagrin, Trafalgar Law was there to hear it.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Author's Note<strong>__: Okay, okay. It's been almost a month since the last time I uploaded. Again, I'm drowning in the massive workload the teachers dumped on us... By the by, 'post bellum' is a Latin word that means 'after the war'._

_And reviews, please. _


	11. Author's Note

Dear readers,

I am deeply sorry to announce that I will be ceasing any activities in for indefinite period of time. This is due to my mounting workload of college works, and I have to put my studies as first priority. Thus, I am deeply sorry for discontinuing my works. Thank you for your supports all this time.


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